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EARLY HISTORY 

OF 

NORTH DAKOTA 



ESSENTIAL OUTLINES OF AMERICAN 

HISTORY 



By 
COLONEL CLEMENT A. LOUNSBERRY 

Founder of the Bismarck Tribune 



ILLUSTRATED 



COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 

LIBERTY PRESS 

76 NEW YORK AVENUE, N. E. 

1919 



X2U 



Copyright igio by 

CLEMENt A. LOUNSBERRY 

Washington, D. C. 

Published igig 



DEC 2<L -,920 



g)CU605143 



To THE North Dakota Pioneers 
and their successors, the fathers, mothers 
and children of the North Dakota of today, 
this work is aiTectionately dedicated, by 

The Author. 
Washington, D. C, February 2-j, 1919. 



PREFACE 



"I hear the tread of pioneers. 
Of nations yet to be, 
The first low wash of waves where soon 
Shall roll a human sea." 

— John G. IVIiittier. 

More intensely interesting than a fairy tale is the story of the development 
of the great Northwest. It is a story of adventure and of daring in the lives of 
individuals not unmixed with romance, for there were brave, loving hearts, and 
gentle clinging spirits among those hardy pioneers, and many incidents and choice 
bits of legend have been handed down, which I hope may serve to make these 
pages interesting. 

It is a story with traces of blood and tears, illustrating "man's inhumanity to 
man," for there were some among the early traders who had little regard for the 
expenditure of these precious treasures, in their pursuit of "Gold ! gold ! gold ! 
gold !" that is "heavy to get and light to hold," as suggested by Hood — the 

"Price of many a crime untold 

******* 

How widely its agencies vary, 
To save, to ruin, to curse, to bless. 

As even its minted coins express. 
Now stamp'd with the image of good Queen Bess, 

And now of a Bloody Mary." 

It is a stor\' of man's love for man. in the work of the early missionaries, who, 
in obedience to the command of the Master, went forth into the wilderness to lift 
up and benefit the "untutored" savage, who only "sees God in clouds, or hears 
Him in the wind," and to bring refuge to his white children, who had blazed 
the way, and who were languishing in despair. It is a story of heroic deeds, 
of patriotic devotion to duty, of suffering and bloodshed and of development. 

Whether I am the one to write the story, let others judge. 

"Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us ; 
Let us journey to a lonely land I know. 
There's a whisper on the night wind, there's a star agleam to guide us. 
And the Wild is calling, calling — let us go." 

—Robert IV. Scnice. "The Call of the Wild." 

My family in all of its branches were among the early settlers of New York 
and New England, frontiersmen and participants in all of the early Indian wars. 
My inother's people suffered in the Wyoming massacre. Among the slain in 

vii 



viii PREFACE 

that bloody affair were seven from the family of Jonathan Weeks, her paternal 
ancestor, who with fourteen fatherless grand-children returned to Orange County, 
Xew York, whence he came, abandoning his well-developed farm near Wilkes- 
barre, as demanded by the Indians. 

I knew many of the people directly connected with the Minnesota massacre 
of 1862, and the incidents leading up to it, and the campaign following — settlers 
in the region affected, prisoners of the Sioux, traders, soldiers, missionaries, men 
in public life, and many of the Indians. One of the stockades built by the settlers 
for defense, was situated on the first real property I ever owned, and in a log 
house within the stockade, my first child, Hattie, wife of Charles E. V. Draper of 
Mandan, N. D., was born. 

In July, 1873, I established the Bismarck Tribune, the first newspaper pub- 
lished in North Dakota. There were then but five villages in North Dakota — 
Pembina, Grand Forks, Fargo, Jamestown and Bismarck ; no railroad, excepting 
the Northern Pacific under construction ; no farms, no agriculture, except the 
cultivation of small patches by Indians and half-bloods, or in connection with the 
military posts or Indian agencies ; no banks, no public schools, no churches. It 
was my fate to be one of five (John W. Fisher. Henry F. Douglas, I. C. Adams, 
Mrs. W. C. Boswell and myself) to organize the Presbyterian Church Society 
at Bismarck, the first church organization in North Dakota, in June, 1873, ^^'^ i" 
the autumn of that year I was instrumental in organizing the Burleigh County 
Pioneers, developed through my direction into the North Dakota State Historical 
Society, of which I was the first president. 

I was at Bismarck when a party of Northern Pacific surveyors started west 
to survey the line of the road from that point to the Yellowstone River in the 
spring of 1873, and saw the smoke of battle and heard the crack of rifles, as the 
engineers were forced to fight, even before they got as far west as the site of 
Mandan. 

I saw Gen. George A. Custer as he marched to his last battle — the massacre 
of Custer and 261 men of the Seventh United States Cavalry on the Little Big 
Horn, by the Sioux. Accompanying him Vas Mark Kellogg, bearing my com- 
mission from the New York Herald, who rode the horse that was provided for 
me — for I had purposed going but could not — and who wore the belt I had worn 
in the Civil War. which was stained with my blood. 

I saw the wounded brought down the Yellowstone and the Missouri, by Grant 
Marsh, on that historic boat, the Far West, and the weeping widows whose hus- 
bands returned not. 

The trail of blood, beginning at the .Atlantic, taking a new start at the Gulf, 
extending to the Pacific, and. returning, starting afresh on the banks of the 
Missouri, came to a sudden check on the banks of the Little Big Horn : but it was 
not ended, the blood already spilled was not enough. The Seventh United States 
Cavalry. Custer's Regiment, was again baptized in blood at ^^'ounded Knee, and 
the end was not reached until the tragic death of Sitting Hull, Dec. 15. 1890. 

We have the Indians with us yet — in many instances happy and prosperous 
farmers, their children attending the schools and unixersities, the male adults 
having taken lands in severalty under the Federal .-Mlotment Act. being recognized 
citizens of the United States, and entitled to the elective franchise in the State 
of North Dakota. 



PREFACE ix 

If I dwell upon Indian affairs, it is because I have been interested in the 
Indians from childhood. After the battle of Spottsylvariia I lay in the field 
hospital beside an Indian soldier, wounded even worse than I. Not a groan 
escaped his lips. I admired the pluck and courage, and the splendid service 
of the Indian soldiers from the states of Michigan and Wisconsin in the Civil 
War. I have seen them in battle. I have known their excellent service as 
Indian police, I have seen them in their happy homes, when roaming free on the 
prairie, and I know their good points. Although I shall picture the horrors 
of Indian wars in a lurid light, I have no sympathy with the idea that "the only 
good Indian is a dead Indian," and I am glad to know that they are no longer 
a "vanishing race," but their numbers are now increasing, and to feel that they 
have a splendid destiny before them. 

I have seen the growth of North Dakota from the beginning. I have per- 
formed my part in its development, but in the words of Kipling's Explorer: 

"Have I named one single river? Have I claimed one single acre? 
Have I kept one single nugget? — (barring samples?) No, not I. 
Because my price was paid me ten times over by my Maker, 
But you wouldn't understand it. You go up and occupy." 

I feel it a duty, as well as a privilege, to contribute these pages to its history. 

Clement Augustus Lounsberry, 
Washington, D. C, February 27, 1919. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TENDERED 

The author desires to acknowledge the receipt of historical data and other 
means of information necessary to the compilation, from the following persons: 

Canada: A. M. Edington, Montreal Star. 

Louisiana: Colonel William O. Hart, New Orleans. 

Massachusetts: Hugh C. Cormack, Boston and Montreal. 

Edward J. Holmes, Harvard Law School Association, Boston. 

Professor Lee S. McCollester, D. D., Dean of Crane Theological School, Tufts 
College, Med ford. 

Joseph Sargent, Secretary Harvard Law School Association, Boston. 

Professor Ezra R. Thayer, Dean of Harvard Law School, Cambridge. 

Brevet Captain William H. Wade, Seventh Mass. \'ol. Inf., War of 1861, and 
Mrs. Wade. Fall River. 

Thomas Weston, Jr., Harvard Law School Association, Boston. 

Mississippi: Thomas H. Herndon (Washington, D. C). 

Nczv York: Henr}' Winthrop Hardon, counselor at law. New York City. 

North Dakota: John E. Blair, former Secretary of the College of Law of the 
University of North Dakota, Spokane, State of Washington. 

Mrs. ]\Iinnie Clarke Budlong, Secretary of the Library Commission, Bismarck. 

Ex-Governor John Burke, United States Treasurer, Washington, D. C. 

Charles Cavileer, Pembina (deceased). 

Very Rev. Thomas Egan, Rector of St. Mary's Cathedral Rectory. Fargo. 

Adjutant General G. Angus Eraser, Bismarck. 

Thomas Hall. Secretary of State, Bismarck. 



X PREFACE 

Major John G. Hamilton, Grand Forks. 

Ex-Governor Louis B. Hanna, former Congressman, Fargo. 

Governor Lynn J. Frazier, Bismarck. 

Mrs. Kate T. Jewell, Bismarck. 

W. R. Kellogg, Jamestown. 

Professor Orin Grant Libby, Secretary of the North Dakota Historical 
Society, Professor of History in the State University, Grand Forks. 

Judge Charles A. Pollock, Fargo. 

Captain W. A. Stickney, National Guard, Bismarck. 

New Mexico: Ex-Governor Andrew H. Burke, Roswell. 

Oklahoma: James A. Emmons, Pawnee. 

Pennsyk'ania: T. Hanlon, City Clerk of Erie. 

Virginia: Rear Admiral Harrie Webster, U. S. N. (retired), Richmond. 

Washington, D. C: Amherst W. Barber, Surveying Division, U. S. General 
Land Office. 

H. P. McLain, Adjutant General, U. S. A. 

Frank Bond. Chief Clerk, General Land Office. 

Mrs. Marie L. Bottineau Baldwin, Secretary of the New North American 
Indian Association. 

Henry N. Couden, Chaplain \5. S. House of Representatives. 

Captain E. W. Deming, U. S. A., artist. 

Charles M. Gandy, Colonel Medical Corps, U. S. A. 

C. F. Hauke, Chief Clerk, Office of Indian Affairs. 

F. M. Hodge, Ethnologist-in-charge Bureau of American Ethnology, Smith- 
sonian Institution. 

Major James McLaughlin, Indian Office, U. S. Department of the Interior. 

Colonel George H. Morgan, U. S. A. 

Rev. J. Henning Nelms, D. D., Rector of Ascension Church. 

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy. 

Lieutenant Charles C. Slayton, U. S. N. 

Major Richard R. Steedman, U. S. A. (retired). 

Wisconsin : D. F. Barry, Superior. 

Wyoming: Rev. John Roberts, D. D. 

Minnesota: James J. Hill, Great Northern Railroad Company; H. E. Stevens. 
Chief Engineer Northern Pacific Railroad Company; J. M. Hannaford, \'ice 
President Northern Pacific Railroad Company, St. Paul. 

publisher's preface 

Part One, Early History of North Dakota, was published in 1913, and three 
years later was merged into North Dakota History and People, published Iiy the 
S. J. Clarke Publishing Company of Chicago, in connection with two volumes of 
biographical sketches. The historical features embraced in that work, with added 
matter and illustrations, are now presented in four parts, complete in one volume, 
carefully indexed, for home and school use, representing many years of pains- 
taking research with verification. 

Liberty Press. 

Washington, D. C, February 27, 1Q19. 



CONTENTS 



PART ONE 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. In the Beginning 3 

I. (Continued) Outlines of American History 8 

II. Occupied for Indian Trade 17 

III. The Buffalo Republic 32 

IV. Founding of Pembina 40 

V. The Louisiana Purchase 53 

VI. "When Wild in Woods the Noble Savage Ran" tj 

VII. Graft in the Indian Trade 88 

VIII. The Northwest Territory — A Chapter Apart 99 

IX. The War of 1812 117 

part two 

X. Early Exploring Expeditions 143 

XI. The Conquest of the Missouri 158 

XII. The Conquest of the Missouri (Continued) 170 

XIII. Including the Sioux Massacre of 1862 190 

XIV. In the Sioux Country 209 

XV. Dakota Pioneers 224 

XVI. The Conquest of the Sioux 241 

XVII. The Conquest of the Sioux (Continued) 252 

XVIII. Dakota Territory 263 

part three 

XIX. Dakota Organized 275 

XX. Dakota in the Civil and Indian Wars 286 

XXI. Politics in Indian Affairs 312 

XXII. Transportation Development 330 

XXIII. Red River Valley Old Settlers' Association. . . .' 356 

part four 

XXIV. Division of the Territory 369 

XXV. The North Dakota Constitutional Convention 387 

XXVI. The State 422 

xi 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PACE 

XX\'II. The Codes of North Dakota 446 

XXNTII. The Supreme Court 453 

XXIX. Prohibition 47° 

XXX. The Press of North Dakota 483 

XXXI. Naming North Dakota Counties 496 

XXXII. Stories of E.\rly D.^ys 501 

XXXIII. Pioneer Settlers and Settlements 524 

XXXIV. History of Banking in North D.\kota 546 

XXX\'. History of IMethodism in North Dakota 554 

XXXVI. Historical Sketch of the University of North Dakota.. 565 

XXX\TI. North Dakota \'olunteers 577 

XXXMII. The Political Revolution in North Dakota 603 

XXXIX. Founding of the Cxtholic Church in North Dakota 610 

XL. E-\RLY Presbyterianism in North Dakota 615 

XLI. Origin of the School Land System 628 

— A Last Word 630 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

Portrait of the Author Frontispiece \j 

Presidents of the United States, 1789 to 1829 8 

George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madi- 
son, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams. 

Presidents of the United States, 1829 to 1849 16 

Andrew Jackson, Martin \'an Buren, William H. Harrison, John 
Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor. 

Presidents of the United States, 1849 to 1869 30 

Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce. James Buchanan, Abraham 
Lincoln, Andrew Johnson. 

Presidents of the United States, 1869 to 1889 112 

Ulysses S. Grant. Rutherford B. Hayes. James A. Garfield, Chester 
A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland. 
Presidents of the United States from 1889 to the Present, 1918 (for Cleve- 
land, see page 112) 130 

Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Wil- 
liam H. Taft, Woodrow Wilson. 
Dakota Pioneers: Enos Stutsman, Judson Lamoure, Hugh S. Donaldson, - 

Charles E. Galpin .■ 226 

Noted Sioux: Sioux Warrior, Crow King. John Grass, Running Antelope. . 240 

A group of old time traders 30S 

Robert Wilson, John Smith, "Jack" Morrow and A. C. Leighton. 
Noted Sioux: Chief Gaul, Rain-in-the-Face, Sitting Bull and Bull Head. . . . 312 

Dakota Pioneers : Charles Cavileer. Jean Baptiste Bottineau 326 

Dakota Pioneers : Colonel Harry Brownson and Clerks 338 

Dakota Pioneers: Erastus A. Williams, Clement A. Lounsberrv- at 21, Alan- \/ 

son W. Edwards. Linda W. Slaughter 398 

OTHER PORTRAITS 

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark 60 

Chief Little Crow 190 

General John B. S. Todd 218 

Joseph Rolette 230 

Governor William Jayne 262 

Chief Red Cloud 306 

Governor William A. Howard 310 

Dr. Henr\- R. Porter and Charles Reynolds 320 

xiii 



xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGt 

Max Bass 330 

Richard F. Pettigrew, Jefferson P. Kidder, Henry C. Hansbrough and Mor- 
gan T. Rich 370 

Governor Arthur C. Mellette 372 

Governor Xehemiah G. Ordway 378 

Walter A. Burleigh 382 

Oscar Shennan Gifford 384 

V Major James McLaughlin and Luther Sage Kelly (Yellowstone Kelly) .... 418 

Governor Eli C. D. Shortridge 426 

Governor E. Y. Sarles 430 

Governor John Burke 432 

Governor Louis B. Hanna 434 

Senators Lyman R. Casey and Gilbert A. Pierce 440 

Senators Porter J. McCumber, Asle J. Gronna, and Members of Congress 

Patrick D. Norton, Geo. M. Young and John M. Baer 442 

Governor Lynn J. Frazier 606 

Reverends O. H. Elmer and I. O. Sloan 618 

MAPS 

Territory of Louisiana, 1682-1762 52 

Louisiana purchase modified by treaty with Spain, 1819 54 

Louisiana, the territory actually delivered, 1804 56 

Louisiana purchase and later annexations 5^ 

Great Northern Railway Line, 1914 342 

Counties and Congressional districts of North Dakota 602 

MISCELLANEOUS 

The First Encounter, — Attack on the Narragansett Indians at South Kingston 4 

Seven Bears at the River, — The Wounded Bear 20 

Hunting the Grizzly Bear, — Herds of Bison and Elk on the Upper Missouri 26 

Black Diamond (the famous buffalo) 3^ 

Running the buffalo 3^ 

Steamer Selkirk, — Old Fort Pembina, 1840-84 40 

Ball Play of the Dakota (Sioux) Indians 44 

United States Flag adopted June 14, 1777 64 

A Mandan Village, — Winter Village of the Minetarees 68 

Sakakawea, "The Bird Woman" (statue) 74 

Portrait of Virginia Grant, granddaughter of Sakakawea ; Sioux women 

dancing 76 

Fort Clark on the Missouri, February, 1834, — Fort Union on the Missouri, 

1834 80 

Dog Sledges of the Mandan Indians, — Interior of the Hut of a Mandan 

Chief 82 

Ponca Indians Encamped on the Banks of the Missouri River.^The Voy- 

ageurs at the Portage 92 

Red River Cart, 1801-1871, — Grand Forks in 1874 148 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xv 

PAGE 

Steamer "Yellowstone" ascending the Missouri River, 1833, — Snags, Sunken 

Trees on the Missouri 1 58 

Upper Missouri River Scene at "Drowned Man's Rapids," Steamer "Rose- 
bud" Homeward Bound, — Steamer "Josephine," 1876 160 

Fort Union, 1864 170 

Horse Racing of Sioux Indians, — Fort McKenzie, August 28, 1833 176 

Sioux Warriors (Deming) 240 

Whitestone Hill Battle Monument 294 

Steamer Far West 324 

Main Street, Bismarck, 1872-3, — Indian Travois 334 

Views of Minot, 1887-1893 340 

First House in Burlington and First Postoffice and Postmaster in North- 
western North Dakota 386 

The March of Civilization (Sitting Bull and other noted warriors following 

the flag) 420 

State Flower, — The Wild Rose 422 

Battleship "North Dakota" 436 

Norwegians Dancing near Red River in Abercrombie, — Girls in Norwegian 

Peasant Dress, Abercrombie 500 

North Dakota State Flag 576 



PART 1 



Early History of North Dakota 



CHAPTER I 
IN THE BEGINNING 

A TRAIL OF BLOOD 

"Swiftly walk over the western wave, Spirit of Night." 

— Shelley. 

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form, 
and void ; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon 
the face of the waters. And God said. Let there be light, and there was light. 

— Holy Scriptures. 

Long before the earth took form, the universe existed. Compared with the 
whole, the earth's proportion is that of a thought snatched from a busy hfe, 
a leaf from the forest, a grain of sand from the seashore, a chip from the work- 
shop of Eternal Energy. 

Perhaps it existed in impalpable dust, or fragments left when other worlds 
or celestial bodies were created, hurled together by Almighty Force, forming a 
burning mass, still burning in the interior, changing but not destroying the 
material of which it was made. Gases from the flaines still form, and finding 
vent at some weak spot, the explosion and the earthquake follow, and portions 
shake and tremble, cities are destroyed or buried, and the face of the earth is 
changed. 

Perhaps a crust formed upon the surface of the burning mass when this old 
earth was young, which, shrinking as it cooled, gave the mountain ranges and 
the depressions which make the beds of the seas and oceans, and out of the vol- 
canoes, belching forth their clouds of smoke and gases, came the "darkness" 
which "was upon the face of the deep," and when the darkness disappeared, and 
life and growth became possible, "the morning stars sang together," for a new 
world was born. 

And that world took its course among the planets, the portion receiving the 
direct rays of the sun becoming tropical, while immense bodies of ice formed at 
the poles. "The testimony of the rocks" indicates that when the ice was broken 
loose, and plowed over the surface of the earth, it was miles in depth. It broke 
down, and ground to gravel and dust, mountain ranges, leaving here and there 

.1 



4 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

the boulders, forming new valleys and new plains, burying the immense mass of 
vegetation of that earlier period, giving to the world its fields of coal. 

Perhaps, under this enormous accumulation of ice, the earth was changed in 
its axis, possibly by some convulsion of nature. The fact that a large portion of 
North Dakota was, time and time again, beneath the waters, is apparent to any 
observer, and in all of the eastern part of the state, the work of the ice is as 
visible as the stitches of a seamstress upon a completed garment. 

Neither life nor light was possible in the earth's earlier stages, and after the 
creation of all other fomis of life, man appeared, and into his organization there 
was carried every element in nature, whether on the earth, in the waters which 
surrounded the earth, or in the atmosphere — whether in the chattering ape or 
creeping thing, in beast or bird, in fish or fowl, in life-supporting or life-destroying 
principle, and to all these life was added, breathed into man, created indeed 
from the dust of the earth by Divine Energy. And what is life? We may fol- 
low matter and find it in its changing form, but when life passes from its earthly 
tenement, who can say whither it goeth ? 

Man ate of the tree of knowledge. That was God-given, and its use brings 
its reward and its punishment, but death is essential to development, and is as 
natural as birth. The seasons come, and the seasons go; winter has its work 
no less than summer; the flowers bloom and fade, and so man is born, matures, 
and falls into decay, and, like the dead worlds which have performed their mis- 
sions, passes into dust to be born again into some new form of life. 

"The stars shine over the earth, 
The stars shine over the sea ; 
The stars look up to the mighty God, 

The stars look down on me. 
The stars have lived a million years, 

A million years and a day; 
But God and I shall love and live 

When the stars have passed away." 

— Rev. Jabec Thomas Sunderland. 

When man appeared upon the face of the earth the strenuous life began. 
Doubtless from the beginning he "earned his bread by the sweat of his brow" 
and the quiet life of Abel invited the first flow of human blood, which has formed 
a continuous trail that marks the course of human development. Without blood- 
shed there has been no advancement, without bloodshed no redemption ; no great 
reforms have ever gained a masterly headway without bloodshed ; no nation has 
ever been established without its baptism of blood. 

Persecution in the old world led to the peopling of the new, and every step 
in the development of the new world is marked by human blood. There was 
war between the French and the English colonists, war between the Dutch and 
their neighbors, and cruelty in most revolting form by those who sailed under 
the flag of Spain and gained a permanent foothold in the country west of the 
Mississippi River. And from the beginning the whites were at war with the 
reds, driving them from one section, then another, destroying their homes, taking 
from them their wealth of game, and planting within their breasts hatred almost 
undying. Who does not remember the pathetic words of Tah-gah-jute called 



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THE FIRST ENCOUNTER 
From Abbotfs King Philip. 




ATTACK ON THE NARI;A(;ANSETTI INDLi^'S AT .SOUTH KINGSTON 
From Abbott's Kiiii; Pliili|i. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 5 

"Logan?" He was the son of a white man reared among the Indians, and was 
known as a Mingo chief — a common term for those Iroquois living beyond the 
proper boundaries of the tribe. He was named for James Logan, colonial secre- 
tary of Pennsylvania, his father's friend. All the members of his family were 
killed in the spring of 1774, while crossing a river in a canoe, and after the 
defeat of the Indians in the bloody war which followed, instead of suing for 
peace with the rest, he sent this message to be delivered to John Murray Dun- 
more, the last royal governor of Virginia. 

LOGAN TO DUNMORE 

"I appeal to any white man to say if he ever entered Logan's cabin hungry, 
and he gave him no meat; if ever he came cold and naked, and he clothed him 
not. During the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an 
advocate of peace. Such was my love for the whites that my countrymen pointed 
as they passed by, and said, 'Logan is the friend of the white man.' I had even 
thought to have lived with you, had it not been for the injuries of one man. 
Colonel Cresap, who last spring, in cold blood, unprovoked, murdered all the 
relatives of Logan, not even sparing my women and children, and he an officer 
in the white man's government ! There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins 
of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it. I have 
killed many. I have glutted my vengeance. For my country I rejoice at the 
gleams of peace; but do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan 
never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to 
mourn for Logan? Not one." 

KING Philip's war 

"Here still a lofty rock remains, 

On which the curious eye may trace — 
Now wasted half by warring rains, — 
The fancies of a ruder race." 

— Philip Frencau, l^s^-lSjs. 

In July, 1675, the King Philip's war commenced. The old and friendly 
chiefs, who appreciated the sturdy integrity of the Pilgrims, and their braves 
who knew what war was, had passed away. The young men who followed them 
had become proficient in the use of firearms and were chafing for war, and 
determined to provoke it, but believed they would be defeated unless they avoided 
shedding the first blood. So they wandered about committing depredations of 
every kind, sometimes snatching the prepared food from the tables where they 
appeared as unbidden guests at meal times. They killed the domestic animals 
of the colonists, sharpened their knives on their doorsteps while boasting of 
what they intended to do, and finally on Sunday, July 20, 1675, ^ party of eight 
called at the home of a colonist and demanded the privilege of sharpening their 
hatchets on his grindstone, well knowing that it would not be permitted in view 
of the Pilgrim idea of the Sabbath. They went to another house where the 
p)eople were at church and ransacked the closets, helping themselves to food ; 
they shot the cattle of other colonists and finally demanded liqtior of one and 



6 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

tried to take it by violence when he in his desperation tired on one of them who 
was slightly wounded, and their purpose was gained — the whites had drawn the 
first blood, and war was declared and waged in all its fury. 

Of the ninety villages which had been settled by the New England colonists, 
twelve were utterly destroyed during that war, and forty others suffered from 
fire and pillage. The isolated settlements were nearly all destroyed, the Indians 
taking but few captives and these being held for torture or ransom. 

The traditions of many families run back to King Philip's war, some of 
the women and children escaping by being placed in an out-of-door brick oven 
before which wood was piled when the men were called out for the common 
defense. When the men returned they found the family safe, but the buildings 
had been destroyed by fire. In Abbott's "History of King Philip," the author 
graphically tells the story, and concludes with these words : "But the amount of 
misery created can never be told or imagined. The midnight assault, the awful 
conflagration, the slaughter of women and children, the horrors of captivity in 
the wilderness, the impoverishment and mourning of widows and orphans, the 
diabolical torture, piercing the wilderness with shrill shrieks of mortal agony, 
the terror, universal and uninterrupted by day or night- — all, all combined in 
composing a scene in the awful tragedy of human life, which the mind of the 
Deity alone can comprehend." 

Plymouth and Bristol counties in Eastern Massachusetts witnessed some of 
the most exciting episodes of the Indian wars, and the conflicts with King Philip 
and his warriors occurred frequently in this locality. Their woods and the 
country lying between the present cities have rung many times with the war 
whoop of savages, and the waters of Mount Hope Bay, and the many lakes, 
rivers, and large ponds, have assisted in the transportation of countless parties 
of attack, and of escape, as well as great councils leading to transactions of far- 
reaching consequence to the country. 

King Philip and about five hundred lodges of his people numbering upwards 
of three thousand, took up their winter quarters in 1675, near South Kingston, 
R. I., on an elevated tract of land surrounded by an almost impenetrable swamp. 
It was fortified by palisades, a ditch and a slashing of some rods in width, and 
here as at Pequot Hill, they had gathered immense quantities of supplies. Decem- 
ber 19, 1675, they were attacked in this position by a force of about one thousand 
colonial troops and their cainp and supplies entirely destroyed. More than 
one thousand warriors were slain, and a large number were wounded ; few of 
the women and children escaping, although many of the warriors reached the 
swamp, and continued their warfare until the bitter end in the summer of 1677. 

King Philip, however, was killed August 12, 1676, at Mount Hope, R. I. His 
body was beheaded and quartered and the parts hung up in trees to be devoured 
by vultures ; his wife and children being sold into slavery. This was the fate 
of the captives generally. Those for whom there was no market were parceled 
out among the colonists as servants. The tribes engaged in this war were the 
Wampanoags, Narragansetts and Nipmucks. 

Similar scenes were enacted in the Wyoming Valley, Luzerne County, Penn- 
sylvania, July 3, 1778, when more than three hundred settlers were slain. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 7 

EXTENDING THE FRONTIER 

Before the Revolutionary war, steps were taken to extend the settlement to 
the west, partly from the impulse to expand, to grow, and partly from a desire 
to extend the frontier as a measure of protection. This ambition was the leading, 
moving thought among the great minds of Virginia, and it was sons of Virginia 
who blazed the way into the trackless wilderness, and took possession of Ken- 
tucky, "the dark and bloody ground," where the battles were fought and the 
minds cultured which made apparent the advisability of the purchase of Louisiana, 
and contributed so much to its development. 

As Washington, then a young surveyor and lowly citizen, extended the lines 
of survey, he was watched by the red men, who dogged his footsteps and scalped 
his unfortunate assistants who happened to fall into their hands, and often it 
became necessary to drop the tripod and compass, and take up the rifle and the 
knife. That which occurred in his case was true in the life of almost all of the 
frontier surveyors, and the frontier farmer carried the rifle, as well as the hoe, 
into the field where the work was done. 

When the little band of Virginians passed down the Ohio River on their way 
to the unknown land, muffled oars guided the Indian canoe behind them, and 
stealthily treading feet followed their footprints on the land. When they sent 
their representatives back to Virginia, it was the eloquence, the force and the 
patriotism of Patrick Henry — and the loving sympathy of his wife, Dorothea, 
"a gift of God" indeed, — which gave to the settlers 500 pounds of powder, 
to Kentucky a name as a county in Virginia, and the support necessary to the 
life of that colony. 

Startling and fruitful of results were the incidents in the years of warfare 
which followed. We find in them the chain of forts, the campaign of "Mad" 
Anthony Wayne, the battle of Tippecanoe and the war with Mexico. 

The horrors of Indian war were again visited on the frontier settlers in the 
Minnesota massacre of 1862, which brought the trail of blood home to Dakota 
doors, the story of which will be told with considerable detail in this volume, for 
it is important that the youth of this fair land should know something of what 
it has cost to establish liberty, to extend the settlements, and to develop the 
resources of this country, until now there is no frontier. 

"But the Prairie's passed, or passing, with the passing of the years, 
Till there is no West worth knowing, and there are no Pioneers ; 
They have riddled it with railroads, throbbing on and on and on. 
They have ridded it of dangers till the zest of it is gone; 
And I've saddled up my pony, for I'm dull and lonesome here, 
To go Westward, Westward, Westward, till we find a new Frontier ; 
To get back to God's own wildness and the skies we used to know — 
But there is no West ; it's conquered — and I don't know where to go !" 

— /. W. Foley, "Sunset On the Prairies." 



CHAPTER I— Continued. 
OUTLINES OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

THE FIRST TRADING POSTS BORDER WARS FRENCH POSTS THE ALGONQUINS AND 

THE IROQUOIS OR SIX NATIONS INDIAN ALIGNMENT IN THE BORDER WARS — 

THE TUSCARORAS A PATHETIC APPEAL ^THE CHEROKEES THE CREEKS, ETC. 

ATTEMPTS TO ENSLAVE THE INDIANS — THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS BUF- 
FALO AND BEAVER. 

THE FIRST TRADING POSTS 

"When the cool wind blows, from the shining snows 
On the long, bald range's crest, 
I am drunk with song, and the gold days long, 
And the big, bare sweep of the West. 

Life is not fair, but I do not care. 

If only I get my fill 
Of wind and storm, and the mellow warm 

Of the sun, on the sage-brush hill!" 

— M. E. Hamilton, "The Pagan." 

In 1608, Samuel Champlain established Indian trade in North America as a 
business by the construction of a Hne of trading posts, with headquarters at 
Quebec. This was the beginning of the fur trade, which, extending along the 
lakes and to the great Northwest, led to the formation of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany in 1670; to the struggle between the rival trading establishments; to the 
alignment of the Indians in favor of the French or English, and to the strife 
along the border. 

THE BORDER WARS 

The English captured Quebec in 1629, but it was restored to France by the 
peace of St. Germain en Laye in 1642. In 1654, Port Royal, now known as 
Annapolis, N. S., was captured by the English, but was restored by treaty. 

Compte de Buade Frontenac was appointed governor general of the French 
possessions in North America in 1672, and under his administration, as early as 
1680, the French had built military posts at Niagara, Michilimackinac (Mack- 
inaw), and in the Illinois country. 

Frontenac inaugurated a vigorous war against the Hudson's Bay Company 
trading posts, and on the English settlements along the frontier. Sir William 
Phips (or Phipps), governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (1692-1694), 
in 1690 in an expedition by land and sea from Boston again captured Port Royal, 
but failed in his attempts to capture Quebec. During Queen Anne's war, 1705 
to 1713, Port Royal having been restored to France, was again captured by 
Col. John Nicholson, in 1710, and renamed Ann-apolis in honor of Queen Anne. 

The next year the campaign against Quebec under Gene'-al John ("Jack") 
Hill, with 2,000 veterans under Colonel Nicholson, supported by a fleet com- 

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EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 9 

manded by Sir Howard Walker, failed through disaster to the fleet from a storm 
on the St. Lawrence River. Queen Anne's war closed in 1713, by the Treaty 
of Utrecht, and was followed by a few years of peace, between the French and 
English, the French gradually extending their dominion to the valley of the 
Mississippi River, forming a chain of forts around the English whose settle- 
ments were menaced dt every point beyond the Alleghany Mountains. 

FRENCH FORTS ON THF. BORDER 

As stated in Francis Parkman's "Half a Century of Conflict," "Niagara held 
the passage from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, Detroit closed the entrance to 
Lake Huron, and Michilimackinac guarded the point where Lake Huron is joined 
by lakes Michigan and Superior, while the fort called La Baye, at the head of 
Green Bay, stopped the way to the Mississippi by Marquette's old route of the 
Fox River and the Wisconsin. Another route to the Mississippi was controlled 
by a post on the Maurice, to watch the carrying-place between that river and 
the Wabash, and by another on the Wabash where Vincennes now stands. 
La Salle's route by way of the Kankakee and the Illinois was barred by a fort 
on the St. Joseph, and even if, in spite of these obstructions the enemy should 
reach the Mississippi by any of the northern routes, the cannon at Fort Chartres 
would prevent him from descending it." 

INDIAN ALIGNMENT IN BORDER WARS — THE SIX N.\TI0NS 

The Iroquois, known as the "Five Nations" until joined by the Tuscaroras 
of North Carolina in 1713, were composed of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, 
Cayugas and Senecas, the Tuscaroras making the sixth of the allied nations. 

THE ALGONQUINS 

The chief tribes of this family group were the Hurons or Wyandottes, Otta- 
was, Crees, Chippewas, Urees, Miamis, Menominees, Chippisings, Pottawatamies, 
Sacs, Foxes, Kickapoos, the Powhatan tribes in Virginia, the Mohegans, Pequots, 
and other tribes of New England, the several tribes being free to exercise their 
own preference — the Shawnee, Blackfeet and Cheyennes, and various other 
lesser tribes. 

The Algonquin tribes were bounded on the north by the Esquimaux, on the 
west by the Dakotas or Sioux, on the south by the Cherokees, the Natchez and 
Mobilian tribes. 

t 

THE HURONS 

The Hurons were a people of strong militancy; they were first encountered 
on the St. Lawrence River in the vicinity of Quebec. In their association with 
friendly Indians they claimed and were usually conceded the right to light the 
campfire at all general gatherings. 

Their confederacy was known in their language as the Sendat, and finally 
came to be called Wyandots (Wendat). In the treaty of January 21, 1785, they 
are recognized as Wyandots. This treaty was also with the Delawares, Chippe- 
was, and Ottawas. It was by the use of firearms obtained from the Dutch that 
the Iroquois were able to drive the Hurons from the St. Lawrence, when they 



10 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

fled to the Michigan peninsula and to Ohio, where they met new foes in the 
Sioux. 

The Recollet Fathers estabhshed a mission among the Hurons in 1615; they 
were succeeded in 1626 by the Jesuits who remained with them until 1648-50. 

The French made a treaty of peace with the Iroquois in 1666, which led 
some of the Hurons to return to Quebec, where the Notre Dame de Foye was 
founded in 1667. Descendants of the Hurons still reside in that vicinity. 

THE IROQUOIS COUNTRY 

In 17 13 Canada was contiguous to the northern frontier of New England 
and New York; all of the territory north of the St. Lawrence River belonged 
to the French ; from the great lakes southward the country was claimed by both 
French and English ; the boundary between New England and Canada and New 
England and New York, occupied by the Dutch, had not been determined, and 
was the cause of much trouble. 

The Iroquois occupied nearly all of the valley of the St. Lawrence, the 
basins of lakes Ontario and Erie, the southeastern shores of Lake Huron and 
Georgian Bay, all of the present New York, excepting the lower Hudson Valley, 
all of Central Pennsylvania, the shores of the Chesapeake in Maryland, as far 
as Choptank and Patuxent rivers ; with the Tuscaroras added the domain extending 
from the Ottawa River to the Tennessee and from the Kennebec to the Illinois 
and Lake Michigan. 

The Algonquin tribes completely surrounded the Iroquois territory. The 
Hurons of this family were invariably allies of the French, the alliance growing 
out of the fact that at the very beginning of French occupation of North America, 
Samuel Champlain assisted the Hurons in their warfare on the Iroquois, who had 
been their relentless foes since prehistoric times ; their enmity terminating only 
with the destruction of their confederacy. The Iroquois on the other hand were 
generally allies of the English. This alignment continued until the treaty of 
1763, when the French made a treaty with the Iroquois. Thereafter the Indian 
alignment depended upon local considerations. 

On Jacques Cartier's first voyage in 1534, when he explored the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, he met and traded with the Indians on the present coast of Nova 
Scotia and New Brunswick. On his second voyage the year following, he 
ascended the St. Lawrence as far as Stadacona — which name gave place to that 
of Quebec or Kebec, given by the Algonquins. meaning a contracted waterway — 
unopposed by the Indians who supplied him with fish, muskrats, and other articles 
in exchange for the trifles he had brought with him for barter. 

THE BOURGADE OR STOCKADE VILLAGE 

Iroquois villages discovered by Cartier and Champlain were of great strength. 
In 153S, on the second of October, Cartier reached Hochelaga, at the foot of 
the mountain (Montreal), where he says "over one thousand villagers gathered 
on the banks to greet them with the fervor of a parent welcoming his child." 

"The bourgade was round in shape and compassed by a stockade of three 
rows of stakes, the middle row perpendicular, the outer row inclined towards 

J 



& 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 11 

it. The palisade was two lances high, and at several points adjacent to the 
palisade were elevated platforms reached by ladders, on which were piled rocks 
to be used as defensive weapons. The enclosure was entered by a narrow gate. 
Within were fifty lodges, each fifty paces in length and twelve or thirteen paces 
in width. In the center stood a common lodge." 

Cartier says : "They take no account of the things of this world, being 
ignorant of their existence." 

Champlain, in 1615, writing about the Huron country in the Georgian Bay 
and Lake Huron region, while resting at the bourgade of Carhagouha, a mission 
of the Recollet Fathers, says that it "was surrounded for defense with a triple 
palisade of wood thirty-five feet high," but when he reached the Iroquois villages 
to the south of Lake Ontario, which resisted his attack and that of his Huron 
allies, he found another palisaded town "much stronger than the villages of the 
AUegomantes (Hurons) and others." 

At one time when Cartier was concerned by the fancied hostile attitude of 
the Indians towards him, he protected his fort by a deep ditch, but no attack was 
attempted. There was a chain of unstockaded Indian villages from Hochelaga 
up the river to Stadacona. 

In 1605, George Weymouth visited Cape Cod, remained some weeks in trade 
and captured and carried away five Indians intended for slaves, an incident that 
led to the first encounter by the Pilgrim Fathers. 

A P.\THETIC APPEAL 

The Tuscaroras were hard pressed in North Carolina, many of them having 
been made captive and sold into slavery. In 1710 they sent a petition to the 
provincial government of Pennsylvania, attested by eight belts of wampum, 
embodying overtures for peace. By the first belt, sent by women of mature age, 
the mothers besought the friendship of the Christian people, the Indians and 
the government of Pennsylvania, in order to be able to carry wood and water 
without risk or danger. By the second belt, the children implored room to sport 
and play without the fear of death or slavery. By the third the young men asked 
for the privilege of leaving their villages without the fear of death or slavery, 
to hunt for meat for their mothers, their children and the aged ones. By the 
fourth, the old men, the elders of the people, asked for the consummation of a 
lasting peace, so that the forests (the paths to other tribes) might be as safe 
for them as their palisaded towns. By the fifth, the entire tribe asked for a firm 
peace. By the sixth, the chiefs asked for the establishment of a lasting peace 
with the government, people and Indians of Pennsylvania, whereby they would 
be relieved from those "fearful apprehensions they have for years felt." By 
the seventh the Tuscaroras begged for "a cessation from murdering and taking 
them" so that thereafter they would not fear "a mouse, or anything that rustles 
the leaves." By the eighth, the tribe, being strangers to the people and govern- 
ment of Pennsylvania, asked for an official path or means of communication. 

Their petition was denied by the Pennsylvania authorities; but the fact that 
it moved the Five Nations to take steps to protect them from further encroach- 
ments of the white settlers who kidnapped and sold their young people into 
slavery becoming known in the white settlements, grave apprehension was aroused. 



12 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

and confirmed by the Tuscarora war of 1711-13, which followed, beginning with 
a massacre in which seventy settlers were killed and many wounded. 

During the progress of this bloody war Col. John Barnwell lured a consider- 
able number of Indians to meet him under a promise of making peace, but broke 
the truce and carried them away to be sold as slaves. May 20-23, 1713, at the 
palisaded towns in Greene County, North Carolina, 392 were taken prisoners, 504 
were killed (192 scalped) and many wounded, making the total loss upwards of 
one thousand. 

Some of the Indians made captive during this war were sold as slaves in 
South Carolina and some in the northern colonies. 

In 1705 the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania enacted a law as follows: 

"Whereas the importation of Indian slaves from Carolina, or other places 
hath been observed to give the Indians of this province some umbrage for sus- 
picion and dissatisfaction, such importation (shall) be prohibited after March 
25, 1706." 

June 7, 1712, while the Tuscarora war was being waged, an act was passed 
by the same body forbidding the importation of Indian slaves but providing for 
their sale to the highest bidder should any be imported. 

INDIAN CIVIL ORG.\NIZATION WOMAN's RIGHTS RECOGNIZED 

Among the Iroquois, Hurons and other Indian tribes, the mothers of the 
tribe were allowed to choose the chiefs, subject to confirmation by the male 
members, and their consent was required in the enactment of all important 
measures. They owned the home. The first thought of the women was the 
care of their husbands, and the children; for them they cut and carried the fire- 
wood ; for them they brought the water, planted, cared for, harvested and stored 
the crops, they tethered the horses, rowed the boats, built the winter cabins, 
pitched the summer tepee, the duty of the husband being to defend against the 
tribal enemies and to supply the meat from the hunting grounds, and to be ready 
for war at all times. 

THE CHEROKEES 

The Cherokees were a strong independent branch of the Iroquois occupying 
the southwestern part of Virginia, western parts of North and South Carolina, 
the eastern part of Tennessee and the northern parts of Georgia and Alabama. 

They joined the Carolina settlers and the Catawbas in their warfare against 
the Tuscaroras (1711) but formed a part of the Indian league against the Caro- 
linas in the spring of 171 5. This league embraced the tribes occupying the 
country from Cape Fear to the St. Mary's and back to the mountains, and in- 
cluded the Creeks, Yamasees, Appalachians, Catawbas, Cherokees and Congarees, 
in all about six thousand. About one hundred white settlers were slain in the 
outlying settlements before there was any warning of danger. 

Governor Francis Nicholson of South Carolina negotiated a peace with the 
Cherokees in 1721, and in 1730, Sir Alexander Gumming, on behalf of the British 
Government, made a treaty with them with a view to counteracting the eflforts 
of the French to unite Canada and Louisiana by a cordon of military posts 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 13 

through the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. In 1750, the Cherokees were recon- 
ciled to the Six Nations, the bloody warfare between them closed, and they 
became allies of the British and furnished a contingent for the capture of Fort 
Duquesne (1758) under the command of Col. George Washington, who was a 
lieutenant-colonel in the command of Gen. Edward Braddock at the battle near 
the Monongahela River (1755) known as "Braddock's Defeat." In this battle 
General Braddock was killed and every officer in his command excepting Colonel 
Washington was killed or wounded. Four bullets passed through Washing- 
ton's clothing. An Indian chief who participated in the battle informed Wash- 
ington, fifteen years later, that he had fired a dozen or more fair shots at him 
and others made special efforts to kill him, but they could not hit him; that they 
believed that some "Manitou" guarded his life and that he could not be put to 
death. 

In order to supply their needs, the Cherokees on their return to their southern 
homes took by force from the plantations food which had been refused them, 
thereby provoking a quarrel which resulted in the death of several whites. To 
avenge the Indian depredations and to secure the arrest of the guilty parties 
an invasion of the Cherokee country followed in 1759, under Governor William H. 
Littleton of South Carolina, with 1,500 men contributed by Virginia and the 
Carolinas. Dissensions arose in the ranks of the invaders, and as smallpox was 
prevailing among the Cherokees, Littleton accepted twenty-three hostages to 
guarantee their good behavior and the surrender of the guilty. The hostages 
having been placed in Fort St. George at the head of the Savannah River, the 
Indians attempted their rescue after Littleton's departure and in the assault 
one of the guards was wounded, whereupon his companions put all of the hostages 
to death, and an Indian uprising followed, to quell which South Carolina voted 
1,000 men and a bounty of £25 for each Indian scalp. North Carolina made the 
same provision, and authorized holding the captives as slaves. Maj.-Gen. Jeffrey 
Amherst, who commanded the British forces in America, furnished 1,200 troops, 
among them the "Montgomery Highlanders." The expedition left Charleston 
in April, 1760, with instructions from General Amherst to take no prisoners, 
to put to death all who should fall into their hands, and to lay waste the Cherokee 
country. These orders were carried out as to a part of the country, and in 
June, 1761, a stronger force was sent against them under Col. James Grant, 
governor of East Florida, who enlarged the area of blood and destruction. 

MARION AND HIS MEN 

"A moment in the British camp, 

A moment and away, 
Back to the pathless forest, 

Before the break of day." 
— IVilliam Cullcn Bryant, "The Song of Marion and His Men." 

The Cherokee war of 1761 commenced with the report which prevailed in 
1759, that the Cherokee Indians were murdering the frontier settlers of Carolina, 
quieting down only to break out again two years later, when the 1,200 regulars 
were ordered out on a forced march to their relief. May 14, 1761, they were 
joined at (District) "Ninety-Six" by 1,200 provincials armed with rifles and 



14 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

famous for their superior marksmanship, and this army of 2,400 men attempted 
to force their way into the Indian country, through a dark defile in the moun- 
tains, but the attacking party was received by a concentrated fire from the Indians, 
poured upon them from every rock and tree, which forced them back to the pro- 
tection of the main body — following them with hideous yells, and brandishing 
their tomahawks as long as they dared continue the pursuit. 

Then began preparations, aided by other forces of the "Anglo-American" 
army for waging war in earnest against the Indians, who would naturally fight 
with desperation to defend the only pass into their country and would follow 
up a victory with the crudest slaughter. At sunrise, the British lines having 
formed in small companies, supporting the provincial riflemen, began to move 
forward, soon coming in sight of the enemy, who appeared to be restlessly moving 
backward and forward. The position of the forces and the action in this battle 
are described by Col. Peter Horry in his "Life of Gen. Francis Marion," a 
life-long friend and comrade in arms of the author, and in this battle first 
lieutenant of a provincial company and leader of the party which explored the 
dangerous pass in the mountains and was repulsed. 

Gen. Francis Marion and his men were brought up in this school of warfare. 
Marion was with Governor Nicholson in his expedition of 1759, and a captain 
with Colonel Grant in 1761. When Lord Charles Cornwallis adopted the same 
methods to destroy the patriots in the Revolutionary war that Amherst had 
ordered for Indian warfare, Marion starting with a force of sixteen men, soon 
accumulated an army which drove the British troops out of the Carolinas. They 
had burned the homes of the patriots, destroyed their crops, leaving women and 
children without food or shelter, reducing many from affluence to abject poverty, 
but with unbroken spirit; and yet Marion, whose heart went out to the Indians 
in the bloody wars that had been made upon them, refused to allow his men to 
retaliate. 

THE CREEKS OR SEMINOLES 

The Creeks occupied Florida and all that portion of Georgia and Alabama 
extending from the Atlantic to the highlands. They came in contact with the 
early explorers and De Soto wintered among the Appalachees, one of their tribes, 
in 1539-40. The latter became strong friends of the Spanish, who established 
missions among them and they had become christianized, and industrious, and 
disposed to peace when, through attacks from the wild tribes, they became 
involved with the Carolina settlers, and in 1708 Governor James Moore of .South 
Carolina led a strong expedition against them, destroying their villages, their 
missions, fields and orange groves. Another expedition the next year completed 
the work of destruction in which the English were aided by other Creek tribes. 

The home of the Apalachees was in the region about Tallahassee. They 
numbered from six thousand to eight thousand people. Governor Moore's expe- 
dition carried away 1,000 as slaves; others fled to friendly tribes, and what 
remained sought refuge with the French at Mobile. 

The Creeks were allies of the English in the wars of the Revolution and 
1812, and allies generally of the Carolina settlers in their warfare against other 
Indian tribes. In 1812, they were visited by Tecuniseh and his brother, the 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 15 

prophet, and urged to make war on the whites, and occasional local outbreaks 
followed. 

THE FORT MIMS MASSACRE 

Early in 1813, becoming alarmed at the threatening attitude of the Indians, 
550 men, women and children — white, Indian, mixed bloods and negro slaves — 
assembled at the plantation of Samuel Minis, near the confluence of the Alabama 
and Tombigbee rivers, and built a palisaded fort where they became overconfident 
of their security, as the spring and early summer had passed without manifesta- 
tions of hostility; but on August 30, 1813, as the dinner bell sounded at noon, 
1,000 savages who had been concealed in a nearby ravine, rushed to the fort with 
terrifying yells and effected an entrance before the gates could be closed. 

The well-organized settlers made strong resistance as the battle raged within 
that small inclosure, from noon until 5 P. M., but all fell except twelve who 
cut their way through and escaped, and the negroes who were saved for slaves. 
Not a white woman or child escaped. Four hundred of the inmates lay dead 
when the battle closed, and about an equal number of Creek warriors fell in 
the furious fighting. 

The massacre aroused the whites of the southwest and Maj.-Gen. Andrew 
Jackson, seventh President of the United States, who was born in North Carolina, 
and a Revolutionary soldier at the age of fourteen, bred in an atmosphere of 
border warfare, and educated in its bitter school, was sent to punish the Indians. 
The war was soon over, the Indians paying dearly for their bloody work. 

THE FIRST SEMINOLE WAR 

In the spring of 1817 the Creeks, who had then become known as Seminoles, 
again began a war on the whites which through the rough and vigorous cam- 
paigning of General Jackson resulted in the cession of Florida to the United 
States by Spain in 1819. 

THE SECOND SEMINOLE WAR 

This war, commencing in 1835. and lasting until 1842, was begun for the 
purpose of forcibly removing the Indians from lands which they had ceded to 
the United States and their removal to other lands. The cost in money was 
nearly seventy million dollars; 61,000 soldiers were employed and the losses, 
principally from disease, never fully ascertained, were frightful, but it gave the 
United States a trained nucleus for the army of occupation in Mexico, which so 
quickly followed and added lustre to American arms, which the Seminole wars 
failed to bring. 

CONFLICTS DUE TO THE FL'R TRADE 

The early history and conflicts in all the colonies arose from the fur trade, as 
between the New York people and the five nations of Indians in Central New 
York, also between the Dutch and English and the French and English. It led 



16 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

the Russians down our western coast and to contest there till the gold discovery 
overcame it. The fur trade was the cause of the Oregon question in later years. 
It was the universal impulse and cause of struggle. 

THE BUFFALO .■\ND EEAVER 

It is estimated that in 1787 there were ninety millions of buffalo in the present 
area of the United States proper. There were none north of the St. Lawrence 
or northeast of the great lakes, but the abundance continued northward from the 
great plains far into Canada. Indeed the vast herds swarmed from the plains 
nearer the Mississippi westward to the Rocky Mountains ; the abundance being 
greatest in our territorial days and to preserve the great hunting grounds from 
the Missouri to the Big Horn region and from the Bear Paw Mountains, down 
to and beyond the Arkansas was the cause of the hostility and frequent Indian 
uprisings, including the Sitting Bull wars. 

The wealth springing from the fur trade was enormous. The great wealth 
of the times was concentrated from that source. This trade extended clear across 
the continent to the Pacific, and led to the successive discoveries of gold, but did 
not lead settlement like the fur trade which founded the towns and trading posts. 

We are surprised at the numbers of the buffalo, but the beavers were found 
in every state in the Union, and are yet to a limited extent. No other wild or fur 
bearing animal was so universal. A considerable fur trade is yet carried on in 
the older northwestern and western states. 

In 1890 to 1895, North Dakota trappers had nearly extinguished the beaver 
of that whole area. Desiring to restore them, a wise Legislature enacted a law 
for their preservation, with a heavy penalty attached. The result was satisfac- 
tory. United States surveyors in remote regions found thriving colonies of those 
remarkable rodents in 1898, repopulating many choice streams in happy security. 





Andrew Jackson 



Martin Van Buren 





William H. Harrison 



John Tyler 





James K. Polk Zachar.y Taylor 

PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 1839 TO 1849 



CHAPTER II 

OCCUPIED FOR INDIAN TRADE 

THE Hudson's bay company — rupert's l.and — the north-west and x. y. com- 
panies ALEXANDER HENRY's RED RIVER BRIG.M)E — THE EMBARKATION — THE 

INDIAN CONTINGENT THE INDIAN HUNTING GROUNDS, ABOUNDING IN BEARS, 

BEAVERS AND BUFFALO ^TERRORIZED BY THE SIOUX — THE PARK RIVER POST 

STORY OF THE BRITISH FLAG— THE VICIOUS ELEMENT OF LIQUOR SACRIFICE AND 

THANKSGIVING AN ATTEMPT AT BRIBERY HUNTERS AND THE SPOILS — CON- 
TRACTS WITH THE LORDS OF THE FORESTS — EARLY' TRADING POSTS PEMBINA POST 

ESTABLISHED. 

"For mankind are one in spirit, and an instinct bears along 
Round the earth's electric circle, the swift flash of right or wrong, 
Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Humanity's vast frame, 
Through its ocean-sundered fibres, feels the gush of joy or shame — 
In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal claim." 

— James Russell Lozvell. 

THE Hudson's bay company — rupert's land 

In 1609 Henry Hudson, a navigator of English birth, sailing under the flag 
of the Dutch West Indies, ascended the stream novir known as Hudson River, 
discovered by Giovanni de Verrazano in 1524. The next year he explored Hud- 
son Bay, and perished on the voyage. In 1667, the Duke of York and Prince 
Rupert formed a company in England for the exploration of Hudson Bay with 
a view to trade, and two vessels were dispatched for the purpose; one of them 
the Nonsuch Ketch, commanded by Capt. Zachariah Gillam of Boston, reach- 
ing Hudson Bay in September of the following year. The winter was spent in 
that region at Fort Charles. They returned to Boston, and thence to London 
in 1669, and proceeded to organize the Hudson's Bay Company, which was char- 
tered by Charles II, May 2, 1670, the king himself, his brother the Duke of York, 
and his nephew Prince Rupert, leading a long list of distinguished stockholders. 
They were granted exclusive privileges on Hudson Bay and along the streams 
flowing into the bay and their tributaries, embracing a vast region which came 
to be known as Rupert's Land, including the Red River country and the streams 
tributary to the Red River, until restricted by the location of the international 
boundary after the Revolutionary war. 

The Hudson's Bay Company had full power to own, occupy, govern, sell 
and convey, and were authorized to maintain armies and levy war, if necessary 
for defense, but for more than one hundred years they had been content to con- 
voi. :— 2 

17 



18 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

fine their attention to the shores of Hudson Bay, and to trade with the Indians 
visiting their factories, as their trading posts on the bay were called. But the 
French traders from Montreal were occupying portions of their country, and 
were pushing on beyond them, while strong opposition had arisen in England, 
which demanded the annulment of their charter, or at least an equal opportunity 
for trade. In 1797, the company extended their trade to North Dakota points 
on the Red River, and to the Missouri River and other places west and north. 
They continued to own, occupy and govern Rupert's Land until 1869, when 
they sold their possessory rights to Great Britain, and in 1870 Rupert's' Land 
became an independent province in the Dominion of Canada, known as Manitoba. 
The Hudson's Bay Company, however, continued in business as a commer- 
cial organization, in direct competition with which James J. Hill built and 
operated a fleet of steamboats and flatboats to such advantage that they willingly 
formed a combination with him to control the transportation business of the 
Red River. They still occupy and govern leased territory in the British posses- 
sions. The building by Mr. Hill of his first steamboat was the initial venture 
in the Canadian Northwest of the man who died in St. Paul on May 29, 1916, 
leaving a vast estate, and a reputation unsurpassed in the world of commerce 
and finance. 

THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY ORGANIZED 

In 1783 the rival Montreal traders consolidated under the name of the "North- 
West Company," and pushed its trade into new and hitherto unexplored regions, 
Sir Alexander Mackenzie leaving on his first expedition on behalf of this com- 
pany in 1789, exploring the Mackenzie River and making other important dis- 
coveries, points on the upper Mississippi having been occupied. 

The Hud.son's Bay Company had greater resources and were pushing their 
explorations with much vigor. In 1801 another company was organized, with 
which Sir Alexander Mackenzie became interested on his return from Europe, 
known as the "X. Y. Company," these initials being adopted for marking their 
goods, in order to distinguish them from the "H. B." of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany and the "N. W." of the North- West Company. In selecting this title they 
chose the letters of the alphabet immediately following the "W" of the North- 
West Company, to let them know they were right after them, and intended to 
make their opposition merciless. 

ALEXANDER HENRY's RED RIVER BRIGADE 

In the year 1800 Alexander Henry, a nephew of Alexander Henry mentioned 
in connection with the early fur trade on Lake Superior, but known in history 
as Alexander Henry, Jr., was the leader of an expedition which set out from 
Lake Superior with Turtle River for its objective point. It was Henry's inten- 
tion to establish his headquarters on that stream for use while in charge of the 
Red River District to which he had recently been assigned by the North-West 
Company. His party bore the title of "Henry's Red River Brigade." 

The manuscript journals of Alexander Henry and David Thompson, 1799- 
1814, edited by Dr. Elliot Coues, were published by Francis P. Harper, New 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA • 19 

York, 1897. Doctor Coues was a surgeon in the United States army and the 
medical officer on the boundary survey of 1872-1876, and was familiar with 
much of the country of which Thompson and Henry wrote. Thompson, learned 
in mathematics and astronomy, was in charge of the location of the boundary 
line on behalf of the North- West Company of which he was the geographer. 

THE EMBARKATION 

After a portage of nine miles from Lake Superior to a point on Pigeon River, 
Alexander Henry and his party left for the mouth of the Assiniboine, on the 
Red River, Jtily 19, 1800, where they arrived on the 17th day of August. 

On starting from Lake Superior the men were each given a two-gallon 
keg of liquor, and on the fifth day they reached the height of land where they 
"finished their small kegs and fight many a battle." — Henry's Journal. 

At the first stop three leading Indians accompanying the expedition were 
each given various articles of merchandise, including a scarlet-faced coat and 
hat, a red, round feather, a white linen shirt, a pair of leggings, a breech clout, 
a flag, a fathom of tobacco, and a nine-gallon keg of mixed liquors — two gallons 
of alcohol to nine gallons of water being the usual mixture. After giving them 
their presents, Henry made a formal address to the Indians, encouraging them 
to be good and follow him to Turtle River, and not to be afraid of the Sioux, 
but just as he was giving them their farewell glass, before their return to their 
tents to enjoy their liquor, some of the women reported that they had heard 
several shots fired in the meadow. A council was immediately held. Henry 
ordered them to leave their liquor with him and put off their drinking until 
the next day, but they had tasted the liquor and must drink, even at the risk of 
their lives. They requested Henry to order his men to mount guard during 
the night. 

Tobacco, beads and wampum, the shell currency of the early fur trade, 
were measured by the fathom. Six feet of the cured and twisted tobacco plants, 
cut in suitable lengths, was called one fathom and had a value equal to one 
beaver skin. Beads in number' having a current value of 60 pence were called 
one fathom: six strings of wampum — one foot in length — whether in bunch, 
bundle or belt, or in the form of loose shells sufficient to make that much 
were called a fathom.* Canoes were also sold by the fathom, according to their 
length. 

Having reached the Assiniboine Augitst 17th, on the 18th the party divided, 
and that portion intended for the Red River embarked on the 20th. There were 
four canoes in this party, carrying a total of twenty-one persons. Two horses were 
led along the shore, and Henry claimed that these were the first introduced into 
the Red River Valley by the whites. Such an assemblage of canoes was called 
a "brigade," and the master, standing between the proprietors and the men, was 
called the "bourgeois." 

Each canoe was loaded with twenty-six packages of merchandise, or an equiv- 
alent in baggage, each package weighing 90 pounds. The packages were so 



* See "Exchange, Commerce and Wampum Hand Book, American Indians," "Bureau 
of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 30." 



20 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

arranged for convenience in transportation. There were many portages on the 
route from Lake Superior, ranging in length from short distances to 3,000 feet, 
over which both canoes and goods were packed, each man carrying from 90 to 
180 pounds, the bowman and the helmsman carrying the canoe. 

In the first canoe there were — First, Alexander Henry, the bourgeois ; second, 
Jacques Barbe, voyageur, conductor or bowman; third, Etienne Charbonneau, 
voyageur, steerer; fourth, Joseph Dubois, voyageur, steerer; fifth, Angus McDon- 
ald, voyageur, midman; sixth, Antoine Lafrance, voyageur midman ; seventh, 
Pierre Bonga, a negro servant of Mr. Henry. 

Second canoe — Eighth, Michael Langlois (sometimes mentioned as Coloret), 
clerk, with his wife and daughter; ninth, Andre Lagasse (sometimes mentioned 
as Lagace or La Gasser), voyageur, conductor, with his wife; tenth, Joachim 
Daisville (sometimes mentioned as Danville and once as Rainville in transcrib- 
ing Henry's Journal), voyageur, steerer; eleventh, Andre Bcauchemin, voyageur, 
midman ; twelfth, Jean Baptiste Benoit, voyageur, midman. 

Third canoe — Thirteenth, Jean Baptiste Demerais, interpreter, wife and two 
children; fourteenth, Jean Baptiste Larocque, St., voyageur, conductor; fif- 
teenth, Jean Baptiste Larocque, Jr., voyageur, steerer; sixteenth, Etienne Roy, 
voyageur, midman ; seventeenth, Francois Rogers, Sr., voyageur, midman. 

Fourth canoe- — Eighteenth, Joseph Masson (or Maceon), voyageur, con- 
ductor, wife and child; nineteenth, Charles Bellegarde, voyageur, steerer; twen- 
tieth, Joseph Hamel, voyageur, midman ; twenty-first, Nicholas Pouliotte, voyageur, 
midman. 

THE INDIAN CONTINGENT 

There were forty-five Indian canoes, also called a brigade, loaded with 
Indians and their families, who accompanied Mr. Henry for the purpose of 
engaging in hunting and trapping, imder an agreement to receive goods on credit 
to be paid for from the proceeds of the chase. 

Flatmouth, a noted Indian mentioned in connection with the explorations of 
Lieut. Z. M. Pike, was among the Indians, also, Maymiutch, Charlo, Corbeau, 
Short Arms, and Buffalo. They were niaiwly Chippewas, usually called 
"Salteurs" by Mr. Henry, and a small contingent of Ottawas. 

September 2, 1800, the brigade divided ; a portion remaining for the winter 
near where Morris, Manitoba, is situated, the others, viz., Henry, Demerais. 
Bellegarde, Daisville, Rogers, Benoit, the two Larocques, Beauchemin, Lafrance, 
Barbe, Charbonneau, McDonald and Bonga, going on to Park River. 

THE HUNTING GROUNDS BEARS, BE.WER, BUFFALO, DEER AND OTHER GAME 

The large number of bears on Red River and its tributaries, and reported to 
be on the Sheyenne River and Devils Lake, was a remarkable feature. The ter- 
ritory contiguous to Devils Lake and the Sheyenne was disputed ground, where 
it was dangerous for either the Sioux or Chippewa to hunt, and became the 
favorite breeding place for the bears ; there they were seldom molested. As the 
party advanced up the Red River, the Indians killed four otter and three 
bears. They complained that Henry's men "made so much noise" that they 
could not kill bears and other large game. 




SEVEX BEARS AT THE RIVER 
From painting by E. \V. Deming, illustrating an incident mentioned by Captain Henry, 1801. 




THE WOUNDED BEAR 
From painting by E. W. Deming. illustrating an incident mentioned by Captain Henry, ISOl 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 21 

September 6th the Indians killed four bears and eight deer. While they 
were pitching their temporary camp, a bear came to the river to drink. Henry 
shot him, but he ran off, and was found sitting under a brush heap, grumbling 
and licking his wounds. Another shot killed him. The next day seven bears 
were noticed drinking from the river at the same time. Red deer were whistling 
in every direction, and a wolf came near and was killed. The men killed a stur- 
geon with an axe. 

They arrived at Park River September 8, i8oo, about 2 P. M., and it being 
plain that the Indians would go no farther up the river, it was determined to 
build a post at that point. 

TERRORIZED BY THE SIOUX 

The Sioux were the terror of all the neighboring tribes, and the enemy of 
all. They wandered over the prairies in large bodies and in small, attacking 
when they thought it safe, lying in wait in ravines or timber, to attack women 
or children, as they came for water, berries or roots. They lingered about the 
camps in the hope of securing scalps, when they would return to their home as 
"big Indians," and bask in the sunshine of admiration. 

For these reasons, there was an ever-present feeling of dread of the Sioux, 
not only among the Chippewa, but also among the Mandans, Gros Ventres 
(Hidatsa) and Arikaras, which led to like raids and like outrages by them 
against the Sioux. 

The Cheyennes formerly occupied the Sheyenne River country. They were 
friendly to both the Sioux and Chippewa but the latter distrusted them, and 
about 1740 fell upon them and destroyed their villages, and forced them to 
flee across the Missouri River, when they became allied to the Sioux. There- 
after, for many years, neither Sioux or Chippewa attempted to hunt in the Shey- 
enne or Devils Lake country, unless in sufficient force to defend themselves 
against any attack likely to be made upon them. 

About the year 1780, the Chippewa went to York Factory on Hudson Bay 
for supplies, leaving their old men and women in camp near Lake Winnipeg. 
During their absence, the Sioux attacked their village and killed a great number 
of the old men, women and children. The place where this occurred is now 
known as Netley Creek. 

Some years prior to 1800, a wintering trader of the name of Reaume, 
attempted to make peace between the Sioux and the Chippewa. The meeting 
was held on the Sheyenne. They at first appeared reconciled to each other, but 
the Sioux took guns and ammunition away from the Chippewa giving them in 
return bows and arrows; to some bows without arrows, and to some arrows 
without bows, and after the Chippewa dispersed on the plains, followed and 
killed many of them. 

In the fall of 1805, there was a battle on the Crow Wing, between the Sioux 
and Chippewa in which the Sioux were defeated, and on December 29, 1807, 
an engagement took place between 30 lodges of Sioux and the Chippewa on the 
Crow Wing, in which the Sioux lost 20 lodges and a great many horses. On 
this date a battle was fought on Wild Rice River in which the Sioux were 
defeated. 



22 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

It required little more than the mention of the name Sioux to create a panic 
among Henry's Indians. At one time two boys were playing Sioux to frighten 
the other children. The Indians became alarmed; the warriors stripped to 
breech-clouts for war, and the women and children were hurried into the fort 
for safety. Henry's men were called to arms, and the appearance of some of 
them is described as ghastly; their lips contorted, eyes rolling and countenances 
pale as death. Any trifling circumstance was sufficient to inflame their imagina- 
tions, for the moment at least — on one occasion the slamming of a door caused 
a sleepless night. But their fears were not always unfounded. 

LOCATION OF TRADING POSTS 

The choice of the trading posts was largely determined by the presence of 
beaver dams. Park River, Pembina, Tongue and Turtle rivers, were particu- 
larly desirable on account of the dams along those streams. The same was true 
of the Sheyenne and Knife rivers, and their tributaries, and other streams empty- 
ing into the Missouri River or its branches. 

The number of beaver dams on Park River influenced Alexander Henry 
in his choice of it as a site for a trading post. There were beaver dams on 
almost every creek. These were necessary to the life of the beaver, which in 
the winter time fed on roots or shrubs to be found under the ice, and on the bark 
of trees which they were able to fell and haul to their lodges for use in con- 
structing and strengthening their dams, the bark being stripped for food as 
required. 

DEATHS AMONG THE BE.WER 

About 1805, an epidemic broke out among the beaver. John Tanner in his 
"Narrative" gives the following description of this calamity: 

"Some kind of a distemper was prevailing among these animals, which 
destroyed them in great numbers. I found them dead and dying in the water, 
on the ice and on the land. Sometimes I found one that, having cut a tree half 
down, had died at its roots ; sometimes one who had drawn a stick of timber 
half way to his lodge, was lying dead by his burden. Many of them which I 
opened were red and bloody about the heart. Those in large rivers and running 
water suffered least. Almost all of those in ponds and stagnant water died." 

September 8th, Henry's party camped at Park River, and Mr. Henry and 
Jean Baptiste Demerais went up the river about two miles, and saw two large 
harts, and killed one on which the fat was four inches thick. 

The farther they went up the river the more numerous the bears and red 
deer became, and on the shore raccoon tracks were plentiful. 

THE PARK RIVER POST 

Park River, Mr. Henry states, was so named from the fact that the Assini- 
boine Indians made a park or pound there for buffalo, heading them in from all 
points, as they became alarmed from any cause, and then slaughtering the 
number desired. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 23 

The spot selected for the fort on September 9, 1800, was on the west side of 
Park River, about three-quarters of a mile from the mouth. The buildings con- 
sisted of a stockade, dwelling house, storehouse and shop, all made of oak, for 
which 3,114 pieces of timber were used. They were completed on the 20th of 
September, 1800, and a flagstaff 55 feet high was erected on the 28th. The 
British Flag, the "First Union Jack," a red flag, with the crosses of St. George 
of England and St. Andrew of Scotland, presumably the first of any kind to 
float in North Dakota, was raised every Sunday. 

THE EVOLUTION OF THE BRITISH FLAG ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY 

The first historic mention of an ensign is the cross raised on a banner as the 
emblem and sign of Christianity. This in the fourth century displaced the 
monogram of Christ used by the earlier Christians, and was finally adopted as 
the insignia of the Church of Rome and used by Pope Urban II during the first 
crusade to indicate the special cause in which his armies were engaged ; the 
several nationalities being known by the form and color of the cross, which was 
borne not only on their banners but on helmet, shoulder, breast and back. Thus 
Italy bore the cross of blue; Spain, red; France, white; Germany, black; Eng- 
land, yellow, and Scotland, the white saltire (diagonal cross) of St. Andrew, and 
the crosses were arbitrarily retained after the crusades as a distinction of nation- 
ality, superseded in the course of time by other devices designed by popular 
choice or royal decree. 

In the third crusade, the banner of Richard I (Cceur de Lion) King of Eng- 
land, was a white Latin cross, and remained the English national ensign until 
appropriated by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, as a badge of a faction, 
A. D. 1265, and as early as the reign of Edward III in the fourteenth century, 
the red cross of St. George on a white ground was adopted as the national banner 
and the army badge. 

Scotland retained her cross of St. Andrew, a white saltire, on a blue ground, 
from the time of the crusades. The apostle Andrew, a brother of Peter, was the 
first disciple chosen by Christ. He is the patron saint of Scotland, and Russia 
has a Knighthood order of St. Andrew, the highest order in rank of that realm. 
When in 1603, James VI of Scotland was crowned James I of England, and the 
Scots claimed precedence for their cross of St. Andrew over the cross of 
St. George, the king, to preserve the peace, on the 12th of April, 1606, com- 
manded all subjects of Great Britain travelling by sea to bear at the mast head 
the red cross of St. George and the white cross of St. Andrew united according 
to a design made by his heralds. This flag was called the "king's colors." At 
the same time all vessels belonging to South Britain, or England, might wear the 
cross of St. George, and all vessels belonging to North Britain, or Scotland, 
might wear the cross of St. Andrew, as had been their custom. All vessels were 
forbidden to carry any other flag at their peril. 

The "king's colors" was the "First Union Jack," and contained the blazonry 
of the rival ensigns of England and Scotland, united by an earlier process than 
that of quartering, in which the cross and the saltire were blended in a single 
subject. This was effected by surrounding the cross of St. George with a 



24 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

narrow border, or fimbriation, of white, to represent its white field upon the 
banner of St. Andrew. 

The voyages of the most celebrated Enghsh navigators were made under the 
cross of St. George, but Jamestown, Plymouth, Salem and Boston, were settled 
under the "king's colors;" many English vessels carrying the cross of St. George 
according to royal permission. Under the cross of St. George two fleets, num- 
bering in all twenty-eight ships, and carrying 1,700 passengers, sailed from Eng- 
land, in 1630, and populated eight plantations in Massachusetts Bay Colony, 
under the first charter, in which train bands were formed who bore this cross as 
an ensign. 

During the Civil war in England in 1641, the standard of Charles I was a 
large blood-red streamer, bearing the royal arms quartered, with a hand pointing 
to a crown above, and a motto, "give Caesar his due." The badge of the royal 
troops was red ; that of the Parliamentary troops orange, the Scotch blue. The 
flag in general use during the Commonwealth was blue, with the white canton 
and cross of St. George, and a harp of Ireland in the field. This was also the 
admiral's flag. One of the banners was quartered with those of England, Wales, 
Scotland and Ireland. The first and fourth quarters, white with the red cross 
of St. George for England and Wales ; the second, blue with the white saltire for 
Scotland; the third, a harp with a golden frame and silver strings on a blue 
ground for Ireland. 

After the death of Charles I, the new council of state on the 22d of Feb- 
ruary, 1648, restored the red cross as the flag of the navy. In the British colonies 
the same flag was retained, except in Massachusetts Bay, where all flags had 
been laid aside except upon Castle Island in Boston harbor where the colors 
called the king's arms were displayed. In 1651, Parliament ordered the 
restoration of the old standard of St. George as the colors of England, and they 
were advanced by order of the General Court on all necessary occasions at Castle 
Island. 

In 1664, two years after the restoration, Charles II sent a fleet of four ships, 
carrying ninety guns, 400 troops and four commissioners, to New England, where 
they obtained 200 recruits, and the aid required, and sailed for New Amsterdam 
bent on conquest, and with further volunteer forces from Connecticut and Long 
Island achieved their purpose, changed the name to New York in honor of 
James, the Duke of York, the king's brother — afterward James II — and raised 
the cross of St. George over the Dutch tri-color. The British colonies in 
America were then flying the cross of St. George from Labrador to Florida. 

In February, 1697, six Union flags, the revival of the "king's colors," were 
shipped to New York, in response to an application for flags for "His Majesty's 
Fort." 

After this there were slight variations, such as a crimson flag with the cross 
of St. George and a tree cantoned in the upper staff quarter, and a blue flag 
with the same cross and a globe instead of the tree, until March i, 1707, when 
the flag of the new nation of "Great Britain" in the reign of Queen Anne, was 
ordered by Parliament to be composed of the crosses of St. George and St. 
Andrew, the old "king's colors" — the "First Union Jack" — joined on a crimson 
banner, and that the flag of the admiral, who carried a red flag, should be disused, 
and the "First LInion Jack" substituted therefor. This was declared tn be the 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 25 

"ensign armorial of the United Kingdom of Great Britain," and was the national 
flag for nearly a century under which the most brilliant naval battles were fought. 
Under its folds the power of France was driven from the East Indies, and suc- 
cessive conquests of her strongholds in North America led up to the Heights of 
Abraham, where it triumphed at Quebec. 

In the flag which the American colonies raised against Great Britain in 1775,. 
were the "king's colors" of the British flag and the stripes, red and white, of 
the flag of the East India Company, and this was used until the adoption of the 
stars and stripes, June 14, 1777. 

On November 25, 1783, when the British sailed out of the harbor on the 
evacuation of New York, the cross was lost to view as an emblem of national 
authority, with two exceptions, viz., the temporary occupation of the British in 
the War of 1812, and a battle flag of the Southern Confederacy of i86i-'65, 
described in an address by Col. William O. Hart of Louisiana, November 7, 
1913, as designed by Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard; a red square, with the 
St. Andrew cross of blue with thirteen white stars, one in the center, and three 
on each arm of the cross. "This flag," said Colonel Hart, "is frequently made 
oblong, but there is no warrant therefor, and such copies are not correct repre- 
sentations of the original battle flag." When states seceded the emblems of 
their former fealty to the Union remained fixed stars on the national ensign. 

From the first day of January, 1801, the "Second Union Jack," the "Union 
Jack" of today, superseded the flag of King James and Queen Anne. In con- 
sequence of the legislative union, its blazonry must be incorporated with that of 
Ireland to comprehend the three crosses — St. George, St. Andrew and St. 
Patrick — in a single device formed by the combination of a cross and two 
saltires. As before, the blue field of St. Andrew forms the field, then the two 
diagonal crosses, the one white and the other red, are formed into a single com- 
pound saltire of the two tinctures alternating, the white having precedence. A 
narrow edging of white is next added to each red side of this new figure, to 
represent the white field of St. Patrick, as the narrow edging of white about 
the red cross represented the white field of St. George ; and, finally, the red cross 
of St. George fimbriated with white as in the "First Union Jack," is charged 
over all. In this device the broad diagonal white members represent the silver 
saltire of St. Andrew; the red diagonal members, the saltire gules (red) of St. 
Patrick, and the narrow diagonal white lines are added, in order to place the 
saltire gules on a field argent (silver). It will also be observed that the diagonal 
red and the broad diagonal white members represent the two saltires of St. 
Andrew and St. Patrick in combination, and that the fimbriated red cross in front 
gives prominence to the cross of St. George. 

The Royal Standard was adopted January 4, 1801, on the union of Ireland 
with Great Britain. The quarters were representative of the three countries : 
England, three couchant lions on a red background in the first and fourth quar- 
ters: Scotland, a rampant lion, in the second quarter, taken from the coat-of- 
arms of James VI, and Ireland, a golden harp on a green background in the 
third quarter. 

Since 1864, the white ensign alone remains the naval flag of Great Britain, 
the blue ensign the mark of the Royal Naval Reserve, and the red of the mer- 
chant service. 



26 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

LIFE AT THE POST 

At 4 o'clock of the day the choice of site was made at Park River, a herd of 
buffalo came down to drink within a few rods of the camp. At the southward 
there were herds of them as far as the eye could see, and during the night the 
camp was alarmed by a large herd at the river. From all directions came the 
bellowing of the buffalo and the whistling of the deer. The next day a band of 
deer, followed soon after by four bears, crossed the river, and a day later Mr. 
Henry, climbing to the top of a tall oak, saw buffalo and deer on all sides. 

A stage had been constructed at the camp, and the Indians loaded it with 
choice meats and bears' fat. The men were employed cutting up and melting 
bears' fat, which was poured into wooden troughs and sacks, made of deer 
skins. 

Bears made prodigious ravages in the brush and willows. The plum trees 
were torn to pieces, and every tree that bore fruit shared the same fate. The 
tops of the oaks were also very roughly handled, broken and torn down to get 
acorns. 

Grizzly bears were killed and many raccoons taken during the fall. The 
great abundance of both red and fallow deer is frequently mentioned. The men 
are reported as taking many wolves and some fishers. The female wolves 
enticed the dogs from the fort, and when they came back they were horribly 
chewed up by their wild cousins. The coons had two inches of fat on their 
backs. The hunters came in from Grand Forks with thirty beavers. The stur- 
geon continued to jump day and night and many were taken in nets extended 
across the river — sometimes upwards of loo a day, weighing from 30 to 150 
pounds each. 

September 20, 1800, the day the fort was finished, the Indians having gone 
a few miles above Park River, reported that they had killed forty bears, some 
red deer, moose and a few beavers. The Indian lad at the fort killed two 
bears. 

THE VICIOUS ELEMENT OF LIQUOR 

At this time intoxicating liquor was being used by the rival traders as a 
leading element to attract trade, and was distributed among the Indians by the 
keg, jug or bottle, to any who might apply — often without price — and some- 
times used to incite the Indians to plunder, and in some instances to murder 
those who interfered by successful competition. The Indians had become 
' demoralized and degenerated to an extent almost beyond belief. As one writer 
described the situation : "Indians were warring with Indians, traders with traders, 
clerks with clerks, trappers with trappers, voyageurs with voyageurs." 

While the post was being built at Park River, the Indians were given a keg 
of rum "to encourage them to pay their debts." and supposing the Indian might 
now drink in safety, on September i8th, Mr. Henry began to trade rum, and they 
were soon drunk, men and women, and some of the children. 

On September 21st, the Indians were sent nine gallons of mixed liquor, and 
the following day paid their debts with pelts caught on their hunt, and received 
more liquor, with the usual result. Henry took the children into the fort, for 




HUNTING THE GRIZZLY BEAR 

From a painting by Charles Bodmer from '"Travels to the Interior of North America in 

1832-3-4," by Maximilian, Prince of Wied, 1843. 




HERDS OF BISON AND ELK OX THE UPPER MISSOURI 

From a painting by Cliarles Bodmer from '■Travels to the Interior of North America in 

1S32-3-4.'" by ilaximilian. Prince of Wied, 1843. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 27 

their safety, and about midnight one of the Indians tried to chop his way through 
the gate to get more liquor. On September 28th, when the flagstaff was raised at 
the fort, the men were given two gallons of alcohol and some tobacco and flour 
"for merry-making." 

SACRIFICE AND THANKSGIVING 

October 17th, the Indians having killed a grizzly bear, thereby taking the 
life of an uncommon animal, in order to properly render thanks to Manitou and 
appease the spirit of the bear, it was thought necessary to give a feast, and 
liquor was believed to be the most effective agent in gaining the favor of Manitou 
and satisfying the bear's ghost. They secured the liquor and a quarter of a 
yard of red cloth for a sacrifice. 

AN ATTEMPT AT BRIBERY 

After all, human passion unrestrained is about the same among all men, 
and impulses are liable to take the same direction. 

October 25, 1800, Henry's hunter reported that the leading Indians wanted 
him to stop hunting so that Henry would be obliged to pay a higher price for 
meat, whereupon the bourgeois ordered that thereafter the Indians should receive 
no liquor excepting in exchange for meat. This created consternation among 
the Indians disposed to make trouble. They attempted to bribe the hunter by 
giving him a drum trimmed with all of the symbols of the Wabbano medicine, 
and a number of different articles of superior value and high consideration 
among the Indians, such as rarely fail to bring satisfactory results when given 
to accomplish some particular object, but they were not sufficient to sway the 
hunter from his loyalty to his employer. 

On the retirement of the Indians, Henry treated his people to a gallon 
of alcohol and a few pounds of sugar, in order that they might make a feast 
after their arduous labor in establishing and building the Park River Post. 

"October 31st, Indians drinking quietly. 

"November 2d. Gave the Indians liquor after their successful hunt. 

"November 4th. Gave the Indians a nine-gallon keg of liquor on their 
promise to pay their debts on their return from the hunt." 

Every opportunity was seized for an occasion to encourage the use of intox- 
icating liquor for the reason that the trader's greatest profit was in its sale, and 
gave him an advantage over the Indians, who, by its use became incapable of 
protecting their interests. January i, 1801, the new year was ushered in by 
several volleys which alarmed a camp of Indians near by. The men came run- 
ning in armed, having ordered the women to hide themselves\ But they were 
agreeably received and got a share of "what was going" — some shrub and cakes. 
Every man, woman and child was soon at the fort: all was bustle and confusion. 
Henry gave his men some high wine (alcohol), flour and sugar; "the Indians 
purchased liquor, and by sunrise every soul of them was raving drunk, even the 
children." On the 19th there was another drinking match among the Indians. 
An Indian shot his wife with an arrow through her body and her supposed lover 
throuirh his arm. 



28 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

HUNTERS AND THE SPOILS 

A very successful winter was spent at Park River. Henry took at his station, 
643 beaver skins, 125 black bear, 23 brown bear, 2 grizzly bear, 83 wolf, 102 
red fox, 7 kitt, 178 fisher, 96 otter, 62 marten and 97 mink. 

Michael Langlois, clerk on the Red River Brigade, who remained in charge 
of the party at Morris during the winter of i8oo-'oi, had also a station at Hair 
Hills (Pembina Motmtains) that winter. The returns showed 832 beaver skins, 
52 black bear, 20 brown bear, 4 grizzly bear, in wolf, 82 red fox, 9 kitt, 37 
raccoon, 108 fisher, 60 otter, 26 marten, 68 mink and various other skins, bags 
of pemmican, kegs of grease and bales of meat. 

Andre Lagasse, "a voyageur, conductor," in the Red River Brigade was sent 
from Morris to trade with the Indians in the Pembina Mountains the winter of 
i8oo-'oi. With him went Joseph Dubois, "voyageur, steerer or helmsman," 
and later they were succeeded by Joseph Hamel, "voyageur and midman" in 
the Red River Brigade. 

Nicholas Rubrette and Francois Sint were employees of Henry in 1800 and 
later. 

COXTR.\CTS WITH THE "LORDS OE THE FORESTS" 

Contracts were made with the Indians by Mr. Henry for the season. For 
an agreement to procure sixty beaver skins they were allowed credit to the 
extent of twenty skins. Thread and other necessary little things were supplied 
gratis. On returning from their hunt, if they paid their debts their credit was 
renewed to the same extent as before. All transactions with the Indians of those 
times were based on beaver skin vakies. 

Articles given gratis to the Indians who took credit, were one scalper, two 
folders and four flints each to the men, and to the women two awls, two needles, 
one skein of thread, one fire steel, a little vermilion, and a half a fathom of 
tobacco. 

LITTLE CR.^NE, THE HUNTER 

Little Crane, a Chippewa member of Henry's Indian Brigade, on September 
12, 1800, while they were building the fort at Park River, was appointed "hunter" 
to receive for the season the value of sixty beaver skins and to be furnished with 
gun and ammunition, and clothing for himself and wife. 

CROOKED LEGS 

September 24-26. iSoo, inclusive. Little Crane hunted with Crooked Legs, 
Crow fCorbeau) and Charlo. The hunter killed a bear and a deer. Crooked 
Legs killed a bear, and they, with Corbeau and Charlo. returned to the post, each 
with a good pack of beaver skiiLs. They found plenty of beavers, and only 
killed what they could carry. 

While celebrating at Park River, Crooked Legs stabbed his young wife, after 
having been beaten by her, wounding her so severely that there was little hope 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 29 

for her recovery. In the demonstration against him which resulted, his own son 
joined, all being as it is written, "blind drunk," with Crooked Legs sitting in his 
tent singing, and saying he was not afraid to die. But Mr. Henry opportunely 
interfered, and Crooked Legs was forgiven by every one but his wife. On this 
occasion, it is said that the Indians kept up the carousal until there was a rumor 
that the Sioux were coming, when they ceased drinking. To his credit it is 
recorded, that when Crooked Legs realized that his hfe was saved, he "sobered 
up," and being a "great doctor," used his skill to cure his wife's wounds, which 
attention seems to have been received by her with slight appreciation, but accept- 
ing her censure with humility, he urged her to take courage and live. Evidently 
she consented, for in another fit of intoxication, it is alleged, she beat him 
and severely roasted him with a fire brand. 

CH.ARLO 

The career of Charlo as a hunter was very brief, and the first mention of him 
in "Henry's Journal" shows him in a bad light, offering to sell his twelve-year-old 
daughter to Mr. Henry for a dram of liquor, and his propensity for drink was 
again demonstrated on September ii, 1800, when he received liquor in pay for 
four bear skins. His brother Maymiutch, four days later, while hunting with 
Mr. Henry killed the same number of bears. 

Mr. Henry desired to visit Grand Forks, and other points on the Upper Red 
River, with a view to considering the possibilities of trade, and invited Charlo 
to go with him, but Charlo feared the Sioux. However, on the promise of a keg 
of liquor on his return he risked his Hfe and went to Grand Forks, and by an 
offer eqttally tempting, namely, "a treat" when he got back to Grand Forks, he 
was induced to go on to Goose River, but here he balked. Goose River was the 
limit. He returned to Grand Forks, received his "treat" and after the first drink 
wanted to go at once and invade the Sioux country; after the second he was 
ready to go alone, and it was necessary to restrain him after the third. He 
would advance to the edge of the darkness surrounding his camp fire, and shak- 
ing his fist call the Sioux "dogs," and "old women," and invite them to come 
on and he would do the rest. He finally fell into the deep sleep of intoxication 
and the Sioux troubled him no more. 

After all Charlo was not worse than his white cousins of a later period, one 
of whom after taking a drink of Moorhead whiskey was sure he could whip any 
man in that city, and after each successive drink extended the area of his 
influence until he became exhausted, when he murmured softly: "I tank I take 
in too much territory." 

Charlo's wife died and he obtained a keg of rum "to help wash the sorrow 
from his heart," and to aid his friends in properly lamenting her departure. A 
few days later his daughter died, and not long after still another daughter, and 
Charlo had two more occasions for over-indulgence which he did not fail to 
improve. 

Something was always happening to Charlo. He was taken very ill and the 
medicine man was called, but before he arrived Charlo's sister-in-law came and 
sat beside him, screaming and howling, calling on his deceased wife by name and 
frequently sobbing, but was soon the gayest of those in attendance. When the 



30 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

doctor came he began beating a drum, singing, dancing, tumbling and tossing and 
blowing on the sick man, until he worked himself into a foam, when, redoubling 
his exertions, he burst his drum, trampled it in pieces and went away exhausted. 
His patient is described as having been "almost worried to death." 

January 15, 1801, Charlo died. His brother, Maymiutch, wanted liquor with 
which to properly show his grief. He said he knew why his brother died, and 
why his wife and two children passed away, all within a few months of each 
other. It was because Charlo went to Mouse River and stole three horses and 
the white men there threw "bad medicine" on him. He knew Henry did not 
do it, but his friends advised him to take revenge on him. He would not do 
that, but he did want some liquor. His brother he said was a bad Indian who 
stole horses, cheated the traders, and never paid his debts, so that even though 
they had caused his death he would not blame them, but his heart was oppressed 
and he wanted a "drink." 

EARLY TRADING POSTS 

In 1664, Daniel de Greysolon Sieur Duluth established a trading post at Lake 
Nipigon, extending his explorations to the region of Minnesota and Dakota, and 
in 1728, was followed by Sieur Pierre Gaultier de la Verendrye, who also built 
a trading post that year on Lake Nipigon; in 1731, he built another on the Lake 
of the Woods, and in 1733, still another on Lake Winnipeg. He visited the Red 
River A'alley and extended his explorations to Grand Forks, which appears to 
have been so called by him from the confluence of the Red Lake and Red rivers. 
In 1736, his son and twenty of his men were killed by the Indians on the Lake 
of the Woods. 

At this period rival factions of [Montreal traders were occupying the country, 
between whom bitter warfare was being waged, each trying to incite the 
Indians against his opponents, and against the Hudson's Bay Company, which 
was inimical to both, until the Indians were on the point of uprising. 

In February, 1913, a leaden plate buried by Verendrye at the present location 
of Fort Pierre, S. D., was discovered by school children, and passed into the 
possession of the state historical society in March, 191 6. 

THE SMALLPOX SCOLT?GE OF 1780 

In the year 1780, appeared the great scourge of smallpox at the Mandan 
Villages ; and through the Assiniboines, who attacked the villages during the 
prevalence of the disease, it became epidemic throughout the whole Northwest, 
continuing until 1782, entirely destroying some bands and depleting others to an 
alarming extent. It is claimed that of one band of 400 lodges, but ten persons 
survived, and of the large number of traders who had occupied that country 
but twelve remained. 

In 1783, came the North-West Company, composed of Montreal traders 
consolidated. In 1784, Peter Grant, a young man twenty years of age, entered the 
service of that company, and ten years later, about 1794. established a trading 
post on the ground where now stands St. Vincent. It was on the east side of 
the Red River, at the mouth of the Pembina River, then called "Panbian" River, 



^p% 


^-^^^K ""^^ 


^IP 




Millani Fillmore 



Franklin Pierce 




James Buclianan 





Abraham Lincoln Andrew Johnson 

PRESIDENTS OF THE ITNixed STATES FROM 1849 TO 1869 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 31 

and is mentioned by Alexander Henry as being the first post established by the 
North-West Company on the Red River. Jean Baptiste Cadotte was. at Red 
Lake in 1796-7 and had a wintering establishment at the mouth of the Clear- 
water River, in 1798. 

The Red River country prior to 1797, had received visits from traders in the 
winter, and there had been wintering establishments for the purpose of trading, 
but no permanent posts until Pembina was established in 1801. 

John Tanner, called the "White Captive," author of "Tanner's Narrative," 
was among the Indians in the Red River country in 1797, and found no Indians 
or whites at Pembina, a short time previous to the building of the post there in 
that year by Charles Baptiste Chaboillez, who named his post "Fort Panbian." 

A considerable settlement of Indians followed the building of the post, and 
in March, 1798, David Thompson was entertained by Chaboillez while locating 
the international boundary line in the interest of the North-West Company, 
visiting also, a post known as Roy's House on the Salt River, which like that 
of Chaboillez at Pembina, and Grant at St. Vincent, had disappeared when Henry 
visited these points in September, 1800. 

PEMBINA POST ESTABLISHED 

* 

The Park River post having been abandoned May 4, 1801, and the Langlois 
party having joined Henry's, the reunited Red River Brigade moved down the 
river to the spot selected originally by Chaboillez, and established the post at 
Pembina. Chief Tabishaw and other Indians arrived on the 8th. Nothing was 
then seen of the Indian settlement that was said to have been near the old Fort 
Panbian, erected by Chaboillez, which had entirely disappeared. 



CHAPTER III 
THE BUFFALO REPUBLIC 

RICHES OF THE INDIANS THE VAST HERDS OF BUFFALO — A BUFFALO HUNT ON THE 

SHEYENNE RUNNING THE BUFFALO MAKING PEMMICAN ^THE BUFFALO 

REPUBLIC THE MISSOURI RIVER BLOCKADED BY BUFFALO THE LAST GREAT 

HUNT. 

"Upon the Michigan, three moons ago, 

We launched our pirogues for the bison chase, 
And with the Hurons planted for a space, 

With true and faithful hands, the olive stalk; 
But snakes are in the bosoms of their race. 

And though they held with us a friendly talk, 
The hollow peace tree fell beneath their tomahawk." 

— The Oneida Chief to the Planter — Campbell. 

RICHES OF THE INDIANS 

The herds of buffalo afforded the chief means of subsistence of the Indians 
while the beaver were the main source of emokiment. The flesh of the buffalo 
was dried or put up as pemmican for future use, the sinews furnished them with 
thread, the skins gave material for tepees, raiment, bedding, carpets, canoes, bull- 
boats, baskets, buckets and cases for pemmican and the fat of bears and other 
animals, strings for their bows, ropes for tethering animals, lariats for catching 
the young buffalo, and at the end were used for shroud and coffin. 

For many years the Indians conserved the buffalo and endeavored to prevent 
the slaughter of more than was necessary for their own consumption, but the 
temptations offered by the traders were too great, and they joined in the work 
of destruction for the means of procuring needed supplies and of gratifying their 
appetite for intoxicating liquors. 

THE VAST HERDS OF BUFFALO 

On Hearing the Park River in September, 1800, Alexander Henrj' found 
numerous herds of buffalo, sometimes forming one continuous body as far as 
the eye could reach, passing sometimes within 800 feet of the party. Climbing 
a tall oak at Park River, he noted the same conditions, and that the small timber 
had been entirely destroyed by them, and great piles of wool lay at the foot of 
the trees they had rubbed against. The ground was trampled as it would be 
in a barnyard, and the grass was entirely destroyed where they had come to the 

32 




Courtesy of U. S. Treasurer, John Burke. 

BLACK DIAMOND 
The famous buffalo used on the ten dollar bill. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 33 

liver for water. All the way to Pembina Mountains he found buffalo and in 
great numbers about Turtle River, Grand Forks, Goose River and the Sheyenne. 

One morning at Park River they were awakened by the moving herd, which 
tramped continuously past their camp from before daylight until after 9 o'clock 
in the forenoon. \\'hen the river broke up in the spring of 1801, large numbers 
were drowned. They floated by the post at Park River for about two days in 
an unbroken stream, and from Pembina to Grand Forks there was scarcely a 
rod of the banks where they had not lodged. An early writer claims that in 
1795 he counted in the streams and on the shore of the Qu' Appelle River, 7,360 
buiTalo, drowned by the breaking up of the stream. They were simply in incredi- 
ble numbers and the prairies were black with them. About their camp in Pembina 
in 1802, they had so completely destroyed the grass that Henry lost twenty-eight 
head of horses from starvation, and one day a buffalo actually came within the 
gates of their fort. 

In 1803 Mr. Henry went to the Pembina Mountains and thence across the 
plains to Mouse River and White Earth River, and for upwards of a month 
was not out of sight of buffalo for a single day. 

In 1804 a prairie fire swept over the country around Pembina and Mr. Henry 
reports that in going to the Pembina Mountains he was not out of sight of blind 
and singed buffalo for a moment. They were wandering about the prairies, 
their eyes so swollen that they could not see. Their hair was singed, and in many 
instances the skin shriveled. In one instance he found a whole herd roasted, 
either dead or dying. 

In 1805 Lewis and Clark, the explorers, counted fifty-one herds of buffalo 
from one standpoint on the Missouri River. They found the plains of what is 
now Emmons, Morton, Burleigh, Oliver, Mercer and McLean counties, North 
Dakota, supporting herds quite equal in extent to those described by Mr. Henry 
in the Red River Valley. 

In 1806 Mr. Henry went to the Mandan villages on the Missouri River, 
and in the Mouse River countr}' was compelled to barricade his camp at night 
to prevent being run over by the moving herds. 

In the narrative of John Tanner, the White Captive, among the Chippewa, 
it is stated that one night as they lay in their camp near the Red River they could 
hear the noise of a buffalo herd which proved to be some twenty miles distant. 
In his words : 

"A part of the herd was all of the time kept in constant rapid motion by the 
severe fights of the bulls. To the noise produced by the knocking together of 
the hoofs when they raised their feet from the ground, and their incessant tramp- 
ing, was added the loud and furious roar of the bulls, engaged, as they all were, 
in the terrific and appalling conflicts." ' 

To this clamor was added the barking and howling of the packs of wolves, 
which always followed the herd and preyed upon the calves, and the weak and 
disabled, or devoured the parts of animals left by the hunters. The Indians killed 
them with bows and arrows and caught the young with nooses of leather. 

William H. Keating, the historian of Maj. Stephen H. Long's expedition, 
spoke of the buffalo as existing in herds of tens of thousands between the Mis- 
sissippi and the Missouri rivers, and vast numbers in the Red River Valley on 
both sides of the river. 

Vul. 1—3 ■ 



34 Ez\RLY HISTORY OF. NORTH DAKOTA 

Gen. William T. Sherman estimated that the buffalo between the Mis- 
souri River and the Rocky Mountains at the beginning of the construction of 
the Pacific railroads numbered 9,500,000. 

The bones of the animals were afterwards gathered by settlers and shipped 
out of the country by train loads and down the river by ship loads. It was the 
privilege of the writer in 1887 to examine a pile of buft'alo bones at Minot, N. D., 
brought in from the adjacent prairies. The pile was measured, and the weight 
of bones belonging to a single animal obtained, and it was found that one pile 
represented over seven thousand buffalo. Like shipments were being made from 
other stations, and it was estimated that the bones which had been and were 
being gathered in North Dakota represented over two million animals. Entire 
trains were loaded at Bismarck in the early days with buft'alo and other hides, 
from the steamboats that came down the river. 

When the Indian camps were captured at the battle of White Stone Hills, 
in Dickey County, in 1863, the fat ran in streams from the dried buffalo meat 
that was destroyed in the conflagration. 

In one season Charles Larpenteur, an independent trader, obtained 5,000 
buft'alo hides at Fort Buford, and in 1845 Gen. John C. Fremont reported 
that the output of buft'alo hides by the trading companies had averaged 90,000 
annually for several years, but this covered only the number killed from Novem- 
ber to March, when the robes were at their best. 

During the construction of the Kansas Pacific Railroad William F. Cody 
(Buffalo Bill) contracted to furnish the men engaged on the work twelve buffalo 
daily at $500 per month. One day eleven buffalo escaped a party of army officers 
who were running them, but were all killed by Cody, who fired but twelve shots. 

William Comstock, a famous buffalo hunter, having disputed Cody's right 
to the title of "Buffalo Bill," a contest was arranged near Sheridan, Wyo., and 
starting with equal opportunities, Cody killed thirty-eight, and Comstock twenty 
before luncheon. In the afternoon two herds were encountered and the contest 
closed with a score of sixty-nine for Cody and forty for Comstock. 

Hunting one day with a party of Pawnees, who were glad to have killed 
twenty-two, Cody begged the privilege of attacking the next herd alone, and 
killed thirty-six, very much to the astonishment of the Indians. 

A BUFF.\LO HUNT ON THE SHEYENNE 

In 1840 Alexander Ross, a Canadian trader, witnessed a buffalo hunt on the 
Sheyenne River, of which he gives the following account: 

"At 8 o'clock the cavalcade made for the buffalo, first at a slow trot, then 
at a gallop, And lastly at full speed. Their advance was on a dead level, the 
plains having no hollows, or shelter of any kind, to conceal the approach. When 
within four or five hundred yards, the buffalo began to curve their tails and paw 
the ground, and in a moment more to take flight, and the hunters burst in among 
them and began to fire. 

"Those who have seen a squadron of horse dash into battle may imagine 
the scene. The earth seemed to tremble when the horses started, but when the 
animals fled it was like the shock of an earthquake. The air was darkened, and 
the rapid firing at last became more faint, and the hunters became more distant. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 35 

"During the day at least two thousand buffalo must have been killed, for 
there were brought into camp 1,375 tongues. The hunters were followed by 
the carts which brought in the carcasses. Much of the meat was useless because 
of the heat of the season, but the tongues were cured, the skins saved, and the 
pemmican prepared." 

For years buffalo hunting had been carried on as a business, under strict 
organization. A priest accompanied the hunt to look after the spiritual welfare 
of the hunters and their families. The women went along to do the drudgery 
of the camp and care for the meat. 
j When the herd was reached there was the early morning attack, after due 

preparation, each hunter killing from five to twenty, according to his skill and 
equipment, and each was able to claim his own from the size or form or com- 
bination of bullet and buckshot used by him. 

When the meat was cared for another assault was made on the herd, with 
which they sometimes kept in touch six to eight weeks, the attacks being repeated 
until all of the carts and available ponies were loaded for the return trip. 

In 1849, 1,210 half-breed carts were among the Pembina hunters. When 
they halted at night the carts were formed in a circle, the shafts projecting out- 
ward. Tents were pitched in one extremity of the inclosure, and the animals 
gathered at the other end. The camp was a complete organization, captains and 
chiefs being elected to command. No person was allowed to act on his own 
' responsibility, nor to use even a sinew without accounting for it. No hunter was 
il allowed to lag, or lop off, or go before, without permission, each being required 
I to take his turn on guard or patrol, and no work was allowed to be done on the 
Sabbath day. A camp crier was appointed, and any offender was proclaimed a 
thief, or whatever the nature of the offense might be. 

RUNNING THE BUFFALO 

Charles Cavileer spent over fifty years of his life in the Red River Valley. 
Mrs. Cavileer, his widow, is a grand-daughter of Alexander Murray, one of the 
Selkirk settlers, and a survivor of the Seven Oaks massacre ; a daughter of Don- 
ald Murray, one of the early merchants of Winnipeg, and on her mother's side, 
a grand-daughter of James Herron, an old-time trader. Speaking of running the 
buffalo, she said : 

' "I can see them now as they staned on the hunt. I can see them rushing 
into the herd of buft'alo, the kunter with his mouth filled with balls, loading and 

I firing rapidly. Loose powder was quickly poured into the muzzle of the gun 
and a ball dropped into place, and the point of the gun lowered and fired, result- 
ing often in explosion, for the reason that the ball had not reached the powder, 

i or had been thrown out of place by the quick movement of the gun. Riding 
alongside of the herd, which was on the run with all the desperation possible 
in frightened animals, they were shot down by the thousands in a single day, 

I and then the work of pemmican making commenced, on the ground where the 
animals were slain. 

MAKING PEMMICAN 

"The meat was cut into long strips from half an inch to an inch in thickness, 
j and these were hung on racks to dry, with a slow fire built under them in order 



36 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

to smoke them a little. When dried and smoked slightly, they were placed on 
the flesh side of a hufFalo hide, and whipped until beaten into shreds, and then 
mixed with hot tallow in large kettles. Poured into sacks while soft, the thick, 
pliable mass became so hard that it often required a heavy blow to break it. It 
could be eaten without further preparation, or could be cooked with vegetables 
and in various ways. If handled properly it could be kept for many years per- 
fectly pure and sweet." 

There was always reason to fear danger from an Indian attack in hunting 
on the plains. In 1856, the Pembina hunters were attacked by the Yanktons, 
near Devils Lake, and their horses, buiTalo meat and supplies were taken from 
them, the Yanktons claiming the parties were hunting in their country without 
their pemiission and not for their own food, but for commerce, which they would 
not tolerate. 

In i860 Sir Francis Sykes spent the summer hunting in the Devils Lake 
region, and the next summer a wealthy Englishman of the name of Handberry 
organized a party for the same purpose. He was accompanied by Captain Cal- 
vert, Malcolm Roberts, William Nash and Charles E. Peyton. George W. North- 
rup was interpreter and guide. Their entire outfit was destroyed or carried 
away and the party taken prisoners by the Tetons, but they were released the 
next day through the friendly offices of the Yanktons, it being represented to 
them that Mr. Handberry was a British subject and only passing through their 
country. They were allowed one team by the Indians and escorted beyond the 
danger line, but the other animals and their outfit and supplies were retained. 

Two hunters were found on the James River who told the Indians that they 
came to hunt and trap. The chief said to them, "We hunt, we trap ; you go," 
and they were given to understand that if found there on the morrow their lives 
would pay the forfeit. 

Hunting on the plains of the United States became very attractive and many 
titled persons felt and obeyed the impulse so well expressed in the following 
lines: 

"I'll chase the antelope over the plain. 
The tiger's cub I'll bind with a chain. 
And the wild gazelle, with its silvery feet, 
I'll give thee for a playmate sweet." 

— Song of Ossian E. Dodge, i8so. 

THE BUFFALO REPUBLIO 

In the summer of 1865 General John M. Corse and staff visited Fort Wads- 
worth on Kettle Lake, afterwards known as Sisseton, North Dakota, and par- 
ticipated in a buflfalo hunt arranged by the officers of the post, there being a herd 
of buffalo in the vicinity estimated at 30,000. 

The party numbered about 100, and was led by Gabriel Renville, a mixed- 
blood Sioux, chief of the Indian Scouts, who conducted them to the vicinity 
of the Hawk's Nest, a high peak in the coteaux or hills near this point. Renville 
gave the signal, and he and his party of Indian scouts began whooping and yell- 
ing, and rushed into the herd, followed by the officers and their visitors. One 
lieutenant of the general's staff, who was riding the finest horse of the party. 




o 



O 



I! 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 37 

became so excited that he dropped one revolver and shot his horse in the back 
of the head with the other. Renville was armed with a Henry rifle — a sixteen 
shooter — and, making every shot good, killed sixteen buffalo. Charles Crawford, 
a noted Sioux Indian scout, armed in the same manner, killed fifteen, and others 
killed their proportion. 

Samuel J. Brown, one of the party, attacked an unusually large, fine-looking 
bull, which he cut out of the herd and chased until he had exhausted his last 
shot, when the animal turned on him and ran him more than three miles. Twice 
Brown tried to avoid his pursuer or mislead him by dodging around a hill, 
but the animal would slowly ascend it and as soon as he discovered his tormentor, 
would again pursue him. The buffalo was finally killed by the soldiers in the 
immediate vicinity of the camp. 

The visit of General Corse, and the hunt were celebrated in the manner 
usual at frontier posts. In the course of the feasting it was resolved that 
Dakota should be called the Tatanka Republic ; tatanka being the Indian word for 
buffalo. Maj. Robert H. Ross of the Second Minnesota Regiment, was chosen 
president: Maj. Joseph R. Brown of the Minnesota Volunteer Militia, secretary 
of war; Gabriel Renville, "captain-general of the forces operating against the 
woolly buffalo and the wily Sioux," and Capt. Arthur Mills, quartermaster 
general. 

THE MISSOURI RIVER BLOCK.\DED BY BUFF.\LO 

In 1867, Capt. Grant Marsh, proceeding up the Missouri River on the steamer 
'Tda Stockdale," with Gen, Alfred H. Terry and staff' aboard, encountered many 
buffalo when they reached the Elkhorn Prairie, about one hundred and twenty- 
five miles above Fort Buford. The story as related by Marsh in J. Mills Hanson's 
book, entitled "The Conquest of the Missouri," is as follows: 

"Though these animals were so numerous throughout Dakota and Montana 
that some of them were almost constantly visible from passing steamboats, either 
grazing on the open prairie, or resting or wallowing near the river, it was in 
the country above the Yellowstone River that they appeared in greatest numbers, 
for here they were accustomed to pass on their northern and southern migra- 
tions in the spring and autumn. 

"As the 'Stockdale' approached Elkhorn Prairie, the buffalo increased rapidly 
in number on either bank ; vast herds, extending away to the horizon line of 
the northern bluffs, were moving slowly toward the river, grazing as they came. 
On arriving at the river's brink they hesitated, and then snorting and bellowing, 
plunged into the swift running current and swam to the opposite shore. When 
the 'Stockdale' reached a point nearly opposite the Elkhorn Grove, excitement 
rose to a high pitch on board, for the buffalo became so thick in the river that 
the boat could not move, and the engine had to be stopped. In front, the channel 
was blocked by their huge, shaggy bodies, and in their struggles they beat against 
the sides of the stern, blowing and pawing. Alany became entangled with the 
wheel, which, for a time, could not be revolved without breaking the buckets. 
As they swept towards the precipitous bank of the north shore and plunged 
over into the stream, clouds of dust arose from the crumbling earth, while the 
air trembled with their bellowing and the roar of myriad hoofs. The south 



38 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

bank was turned into a liquid mass of mud by the water streaming from their 
sides as they scrambled out, and thundered away across the prairie. * * * 
Several hours elapsed before the 'Stockdale' was able to break through the 
migrating herds, and resume her journey, and they were still crossing, when at 
last they passed beyond view." 

THE LAST GREAT HUNT 

In his book entitled "My Friend, the Indian," Maj. James McLaughlin, gives 
an account of what was the last buffalo hunt in North Dakota, resulting in 
killing 5)000 of the noble beasts, now reduced to a few small herds preserved in 
parks by the Government or individuals. Major McLaughlin was then Indian 
Agent at Standing Rock. 

The buffalo had been located loo miles west, on the head waters of the 
Cannonball River. It was in June, when the buffalo was at his best. The camp 
was made according to tribal customs, and all of the honors were accorded the 
traditional beliefs. Two thousand Indians were seated on the prairie, with due 
regard to rank, forming a crescent-shaped body, the horns of the crescent open- 
ing to the west. Running Antelope, the leader 'of the hunt, was seated in the 
rear of a painted stone, made to represent an altar. Eight young men had been 
selected to go ahead and spy out the buft'alo. The chief addressed them relative 
to the importance of their mission, and the necessity of caution, and closed by 
administering to each a solemn oath, during which the men in the semi-circle put 
away their pipes. Running Antelope filled the sacred pipe, which was lighted 
with much ceremony, and offered to the earth in front of him to propitiate the 
spirits which make the ground plentiful, and then to the sky, invoking the bless- 
ing of the Great Spirit. He took a puff, and passed it to the chief of the 
scouts: the latter placed his hand holding the bowl of the pipe on the allar, and 
then took a puff, each following his example. 

When the ceremony was over every man owning a horse was on his feet, 
gesticulating and congratulating the scouts on their good fortune. Three bushes 
were set in the ground, and if in riding anyone succeeded in knocking down all 
three of the bushes, a great amount of game would be killed. Major McLaughlin 
led the race, and it was his good fortune to knock down all three. The Indians 
were happy. All seemed well. When happy the Indian is exuberant in his joy, 
and his cup of happiness that day promised to be filled to the very brim. Gall. 
Crow King, Rain-in-the-Face, John Grass, Spotted Horn Bull and other noted 
men vvere there. The march lasted four days. There were about six hundred 
mounted hunters in the party, and many thousand buffalo were quietly grazing 
on the slopes of a hundred elevations as they advanced upon the herd. Some of 
the hunters were armed with bow and arrows, but most of them with repeating 
rifles, and in a few moments the hunt became a slaughter. The Indians killed 
buffalo until they were exhausted, and when the day's work was done over 
two thousand animals had been slain. Several of the Indians were hurt, one 
dying of heart disease during the excitement of the slaughter. The attack was 
renewed on the herd the next day with even greater success, and when it was 
concluded over five thou.sand had been slain, and the meat preserved for the 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 39 

winter's food supply. Frank Gates and Henry Agard each killed twenty-five 
bifffalo, and many others had made enviable records. 

It was contemporaneous with these results that William E. Curtis, the noted 
traveler, accompanied by the author of these pages, visited the Yellowstone River. 
They were entertained at Glendive by Capt. James M. Bell of the Seventh 
U. S. Cavalry, who organized a buffalo hunt for their entertainment. They 
reached the grounds, twenty miles down the river, from Glendive, about noon, 
and encountered a herd of about four thousand, but being there to see and not 
to be a part of the performance, Curtis and Lounsberry were not mounted. 
However, they were allowed to creep up the cut bank of a stream to within easy 
range, when they fired and the stampede commenced. The soldiers then rushed 
in among the herd shooting as they rode alongside of the running animals. 
Seven were killed, that being all that was needed for a camp supply of meat. 

The great herds of buffalo and of the cattle and horses which succeeded 
them have passed and are gone, so far as free range is concerned, and the open 
country which once knew them shall know them no more. 



CHAPTER IV 
FOUNDING OF PEMBINA 

THE POST NAMED ORIGIN OF THE NAME THE FIRST FARMING POULTRY RAISING 

AND MANUFACTURES THE FIRST CHILD PIERRE BONGA THE FIRST WHITE 

CHILD MANAGERS, EMPLOYEES AND TRADING STATISTICS — BUFFALO, THE 

HUNTER — EFFECTS OF THE LIQUOR TRADE AT PEMBINA THE STAIN ON THE 

RECORD NORTH-WEST AND X. Y. CONSOLIDATION FIRST FAMILY NAMES — 

HENRY SUFFERS FROM THE SIOUX — TRIAL OF THE NEW POLICY — CHANGE IN 

MANAGERS OUTLYING POSTS WITHDRAWN ANARCHY AND HOSTILITY A 

NIGHT ATTACK POSTS ON THE RED RIVER EARLY TRAFFIC ON THE RED RIVER. 

"And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades 
of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better 
of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians 
put together." — Jonathan Swift. 

THE POST NAMED 

May 17, 1801, Alexander Henry selected the spot for building a fort at 
Pembina. The post was completed October i, 1801, and thereafter Henry's 
scattered forces made their headquarters at Pembina. 

The post was named "Fort Panbian." and was later called the "Pembina 
House." It was built on the north side of the Panbian River — afterward changed 
to Pembina — between that and the Red River, 100 paces from each, on land 
afterwards entered by Joseph Rolette, and in 1870, James J. Hill, subsequently 
president of the Great Northern Railroad, purchased of Air. Rolette the identical 
ground on which the estabhshment stood, embracing five acres, where he built a 
bonded warehouse for trade with the Indians and settlements in Manitoba. 

Norman W. Kittson, a later trader at Pembina, and identified with transpor- 
tation and other interests of the Red River country and of Minnesota, was a 
relative of Alexander Henry. Henry's post consisted of a storehouse, ioo.x20 
feet, built of logs. Later a stockade and other buildings, including store rooms, 
shops, warehouses, and a stable for fifty horses, were added. 

The Hudson's Bay Company built, the fall of 1801, a post on the east side of 
the Red River, near Peter Grant's old post, and the X. Y. Company built just 
below Henry on the Pembina River. The Hudson's Bay Company built a post, 
also, on the Pembina River at the Grand Passage, which was destroyed by fire 
April I, 1803. 

40 




STEAMER SELKIRK 
Floating palace of the Red River of the North. Built in 1871 




OLD FORT PEJFBINA, 1S40-S4 
Korman Kittson's trading post. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 41 

ORIGIN OF THE NAME 

The name of Pembina, applied to the post and the mountains, previous to 
1801 known as Hair Hills, is claimed by recognized authorities to be derived from 
the Chippewa words ancpeminan sipi, a red berry known among the whites as 
the "higli busli cranberry." 

The early efforts to create the "Territory of Pembina" were antagonized 
because it was alleged that the word was insignificant, and when in the debates 
in Congress it was pronounced "Pembyny," by a usually well informed congress- 
man, all efforts in that direction ceased. Early in 1882, the Bismarck Tribune, 
then edited by the author of these pages, used "North Dakota" in the date line 
of that paper, and from that time the friends of "North Dakota" were united 
in their efforts to secure "North Dakota" for the name of the proposed new state. 
Dakota had become noted for its great wheat fields, and it was desired, also, to 
retain whatever benefit might accrue from that fact, as the famous farms were in 
the northern part of the territory. 

THE FIRST FARMING 

John Tanner claims that the cultivation of Indian corn was introduced on the 
Red River by an Ottawa friend of his of the name of She-gaw-kee-sink, and it is 
known that Indian farming \yas carried on successfully for many years by the 
Arikaras, R^andans and Hidatsa, at the Mandan villages, prior to the advent 
of Alexander Henr\'. They raised corn, potatoes, squashes, etc., but to Henry 
belongs the credit of the first attempt to raise vegetables and corn in the upper 
Red River Valley. He was the first white farmer in North Dakota. May 17, 
1 80 1, he planted a few potatoes and garden seeds on the site of Peter Grant's 
old fort, ,-ind harvested 1J/2 bushels of potatoes October ist. The other vegetables 
had been consumed by the horses. 

The following year on I\Iay 15, 1802, he began to sow his garden, and 
planted a bushel of potatoes, received from Portage La Prairie. 

May 7, 1803, he planted potatoes, turnips, beets, carrots, onions, sowed cab- 
bage and planted cabbage stalks for seed. Three days later he finished planting 
eight kegs of potatoes. The yield October 17th, amounted to 420 bushels of 
potatoes from 7 bushels planted, exclusive of those used, destroyed and stolen 
by the Indians, estimated at 200 bushels : 300 large heads of cabbage, 8 bushels 
of carrots, 16 bushels of onions, 10 bushels of turnips, some beets, parsnips, 
etc. One onion measured 22 inches in circumference at the thick end; a turnip 
with its leaves weighed 25 pounds, the leaves alone 15 pounds. The weight 
without the leaves was generally 10 to 12 pounds. 

April 28, 1804, he was working in his garden, and September 9th, gathered 
cucumbers and made a nine-gallon keg of pickles. October 22d the crop gathered 
was 1,000 bushels of potatoes — the product of 21 bushels — 40 bushels of turnips, 
25 bushels of carrots, 20 bushels of beets, 20 bushels of parsnips, 10 bushels of 
cucumbers, 2 bushels of melons, 5 bushels of squashes, 10 bushels of Indian corn, 
200 large heads of cabbage, 300 small and savoy cabbage ; all of these exclusive 
of what had been eaten and destroyed. 

Here is doubtless the first record of Indian corn grown in the Red River 



42 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Valley. Henry claims that he furnished the Indians at Dead River, Manitoba, 
seed corn and seed potatoes in 1805. 

POULTRY RAISING AND MANUFACTURES 

In 1807 Henry brought a cockerel and two hens from Fort William to 
Pembina. One hen died, and the other began to lay March 29, 1808. May 8th, 
she hatched eleven chickens and .seven more were added later in the season; 
giving him a flock of eighteen chickens, the first domestic fowl raised in North 
Dakota. 

At this time there was a manufactory at Pembina, where Red River carts 
were made, and a cooper shop turning out kegs and half barrels. 

THE FIRST CllU.D, PIERRE BONGA 

March 14, 1801, the first child, not of Indian blood, was born at Pembina, 
to Pierre Bonga and his wife, both negroes. Pierre Bonga had been a slave 
of Capt. Daniel Robertson of Mackinaw, brought home from the West Indies, 
and was in the first canoe of the Red River Brigade of July, 1800. 

An amusing story of riding a buffalo is told of him at Pembina. A buffalo 
cow had fallen on the ice near the fort, and in her struggle to get up had become 
entangled in a rope, but finally gained her feet, when Pierre and Crow (an 
Indian) got on her back, but without paying any attention to them, she attacked 
the dogs, and was as nimble in jumping and kicking as she was before taking the 
load of nearly four hundred pounds. 

In the fall of 1802, Joseph Duford of the X. Y. Company threatened to kill 
Bonga, and himself received a sound beating. Bonga left numerous descendants, 
one of whom was an interpreter at the Fort Snelling treaty of 1837. 

THE FiKST WHITE CHILD 

The first white child was born at Pembina December 29, 1807. Its father 
was John Scart of Grand Forks, and its mother was a native of the Orkney 
Islands, who dressed in men's clothes and for several years had been doing a 
man's work at Pembina. 

MANAGERS, EMPLOYEES AND TRADING STATISTICS 

Jean Baptiste Demerais, interpreter for Henry's Red River brigade, had 
charge of the garden, horses and fishing, etc., at Fort Pembina the first season, 
and the winter of 1801-2, took at his station near where Morris, Manitoba, now 
stands, 130 beaver skins', 8 wolf, 2 fo.x, 3 raccoon, 38 fisher, 2 otter and 5 mink. 

BUFFALO, THE HUNTER 

BuiTalo, a member of the Henry expedition of 1800, in 180 1, was chosen 
hunter for the post at Pembina. .-Xs recorded in the annals of the post he was 
one of the most demoralized in his domestic relations, oftering, like Charlo, to 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 43 

sell his nine-year-old daughter to Henry for a dram of his "mixture" at Park 
River. In the spring of 1803, he quarreled with his wife, and struck her with 
a club, cutting a gash in her head six inches long from the effects of which she 
was so long recovering that she was believed to be dead, and a year later he 
repeated the brutality by stabbing his young wife in the arm; all of which 
was attributed to his frenzied condition while in his cups. 

MICHAEL LANGLOIS 

Michael Langlois of the Red River Brigade, after the trading post was 
established the fall of 1801, on the Pembina River, was sent to the Pembina 
Mountains, then known as Hair Hills, to establish a post at the foot of the 
steep, sandy banks, where the river first issues from the mountains, and the 
X. Y. Company sent four men there to build alongside of his establishment; 
also, aside from the two houses mentioned, there was another trading post in 
the Pembina Mountains, known as the De Lorme House, where Henry called 
on his rounds, visiting his several outlying posts that winter. These trips were 
made with dog sledges and snow shoes.' 

The following winter of 1801-02, Michael Langlois took at the Pembina 
Mountains, 200 beaver skins, 24 black bear, 5 brown bear, 160 wolf, 39 fox, 
14 raccoon, 57 fisher, 5 otter and 15 mink. In September, 1802, he was ordered 
by Mr. Henry to Red Lake, but failing to make that point, .spent the winter 
at Leech Lake, accompanied by Joseph Duford. The winter of 1803-04, he passed 
at the Pembina Mountains post with Le Sieur Toussaint and turned in 182 beaver 
skins, 51 bear and 148 wolf. Maymiutch, Charlo's brother, an Indian who went 
up the river with the "brigade," while under the influence of liquor, shot at 
Michael Langlois December 21, 1803. The following season, 1804-05, Langlois 
was in charge of the same station with James Caldwell. The returns of catch 
are as follows: 16 beaver skins, 37 bear, 251 wolf. 

Other employees at Fort Pembina in 1801, or about that period, who con- 
ducted the work of the post, were Jean Baptiste Le Due (possibly Larocque), 
Joachim Daisville, Andre La Grosser, Andre Beauchemin, Jean Baptiste 
Larocque, Jr., Etienne Roy, Francois Sint, Joseph Maceon, Charles Bellegarde, 
Joseph Hamel, Nicholas Pouliotte and Joseph Dubois — all of Henry's Red 
River Brigade. 

JOHN CAMERON 

John Cameron who had been at Park River the previous season, was sent by 
Mr. Henry September i. 1801, to Grand Forks, to build a post there, and he was 
followed by the X. Y. Company ; wherever the one company went the other was 
sure fo follow. Cameron took in at Grand Forks, the season of 1801-02, 410 
beaver skins, 22 black bear, 2 brown bear, 30 wolf, 20 fox, 20 raccoon, 23 fisher, 
29 otter and 6 mink. 

September 20, 1802, he was sent from Pembina for the same purpose, to 
Turtle River, and took in 337 beaver skins, 40 bear and 114 wolf. The winter 
of 1803-04, he passed at Park River with Joseph Ducharme and the post turned 
in 147 beaver skins, 25 bear and 14 wolf. 



44 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

AUGUSTINE CADOTTE 

Augustine Cadotte was sent September 20, 1802, to the Pembina Mountains, 
to trade witli the Crees and Assiniboincs and remained there through the winter, 
taking 30 beaver skins, 47 bear and 364 wolf. April i, 1803, he was sent to 
Grand Forks to rebuild the post there, erecting a building icx)x20 feet in extent, 
the same size as the original post at Pembina. The X. Y. and the Hudson's 
Bay Company followed, and that spring the Hudson's Bay Company erected a 
new post on the north side of the Pembina River at Pembina. 

JOJIN CRECASSE 

John Crebasse with Mr. Henry at Fort Pembina, in the winter of 1801-02, 
look in 629 beaver skins, 18 black bear, 4 brown bear, 58 wolf, 16 fox, 39 raccoon, 
67 fisher, 24 otter, 6 marten, 26 mink. At the same place he passed the follow- 
ing winter, 1802-03, with Mr. Henry, taking 550 beaver skins, 38 bear and 104 
wolf. 

The winter of 1805-06, John Creljasse was in charge at Grand Forks, and 
Mr. Henry at Pembina. Crebasse turned in from the former station 343 beaver 
skins, 24 bear, 310 wolf, 171 fox, 75 raccoon, 59 fisher, 27 otter and other skins. 

Of course there were other products of the chase from all of these points 
each year. 

JOSEPH DUFORD 

Joseph Duford, a member of the X. Y. Company, who threatened to kill 
Pierre Bonga, and was the companion of Michael Langlois at Leech Lake 
the winter of 1802-03, was with Henry Hesse in charge of the Salt River jjost 
in 1804-05, and it appears on the returns of Salt River for that winter, that 
they turned in 160 beaver skins, 24 bear and 346 wolf. Duford was killed by a 
visiting Indian, October 30, 1805, and under this date the following particulars 
are given : 

A visiting Indian and his chief had accepted a quart of rum and were being 
entertained at the fort. In the course of the night they quarreled, made up, 
fought their battles with the Sioux over again, sang war songs, discussed the*- 
Sioux, boasted of their own exploits, sometimes maneuvering as in actual battle, 
with a pipe stem for a weapon, and finally the chief fell, exhausted and the other 
continued the performance alone, until he worked himself into a frenzy and 
thinking he was really in a battle and the Sioux were upon him, grabbed his gun, 
called upon his imaginary comrades to follow him and fired — mortally wound- 
ing Joseph Duford. 

The next morning when sober, the Indian was in great distress, insisting 
that he intended no harm, that he knew that he was a bad Indian ; that he had 
killed three of his own children, but he had never hurt a white man before. 

According to the record — "he was forgiven." 

ETIENNE CFIARBONNEAU 

Etienne Charbonneau went up the river with Henry's Red River Brigade 
to Park River, and the winter of 1803-04 was with Henry at Fort Pembina, where 
they turned in 211 beaver skins, 29 bear and 37 wolf. 




12; 
< 

I— i 

Q 






EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 45 

For the winter of 1804-05, the returns of the catch at Fort Pembina were 829 
beaver skins, 36 bear and 102 wolf. 

There were ten grizzly bear si^ins in the returns of that year from the three 
posts, viz. : Salt River, Pembina Mountains and Pembina post. 

THE STAIN ON THE RECORD 

"Oh ! stay not to recount the tale — 

'Twas bloody — and 'tis past, 
The firmest cheek might well grow pale 

To hear it to the last. 
The God of heaven, who prospers us. 

Could bid a nation grow. 
And shield us from the red man's curse 
Two hundred years ago !" 

— Grenville Mellen. 

From the 28th of August, 1801, to the close of the year 1804, the record of 
the life at Fort Pembina is a series of complaints, demands, quarrels and casual- 
ties, the revolting details of which involve the characters of many brave Indians, 
who* doubtless merit honorable mention, but who appear at best as "trouble- 
some" and many of them as answerable for a long list of crimes, invariably 
with direct reference to an abnormal state of mind, attributed to over-indulgence 
on one side and criminal adulteration of the means of it on the other. 

The record of Alexander Henry, as made up by himself, during five years 
of the early history of the Red River Valley, is bad enough. Others were work- 
ing on the same lines. In some of their journals the record is far inore shameful 
than Henry's, and of his Doctor Couessays: 

"The seamy side of the fur trade Henry shows us with a steady hand that 
we can scarcely follow with unshaken nerves, is simply hell on earth ; people 
with no soul above a beaver skin, fired by King Alcohol in the workshop of 
Mammon." 

Ingenious excuses were framed by the Indians for obtaining the stimulant 
which the white traders had encouraged them to use and taught them to prize 
above all things, and in the dealing out to them of the poison, there was often 
a nefarious liberality, let alone their questionable forms of trade, for which there 
can be no condemnation too severe. 

Henry in commenting on the degeneracy of the Indians, said : 

"The Indians totally neglect their ancient ceremonies, and to what can this 
degeneracy be ascribed but to their mtercourse with us ; particularly as they 
are so unfortunate as to have a continual succession of opposition parties to 
teach them roguery and destroy both mind and body with that pernicious article, 
rum ! What a different set of people they would be, were there not a drop of 
liquor in the country ! If a murder is committed among the Saulteurs (Chippewa), 
it is always in a drinking match. We may truly say that liquor is the root of all 
evil in the Northwest. Great bawling and lamentation went on, and I was 
troubled most of the night for liquor to wash away grief." 

The use of intoxicating liquor rouses the passions, among all races of men ; 
it deadens the sensibilities, impairs and frequently destroys the memory. Love 
and virtue cannot long endure where alcohol holds sway; prosperity cannot abide 



46 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

in the home of the man who is addicted to its use, his business will fail, his 
home wiil be broken, and his parents, his wife and daughters may expect to 
go in sorrow to their graves. There is no evil known to man that can or does 
bring the distress to the human race that follows its unrestrained use. 

Perhaps it has be^n, and may be used to some advantage in medicine and 
mechanic arts, but there is absolutely no compensation that it has given or can 
give the world, for the ruin it has wrought in its use as a beverage. A noble 
race that peopled the plains and forests of North America have been nearly 
destroyed by its use and the w'hite man's greed for gold, and countless thousands, 
aye, millions of white men have been unfitted for life's duties, not to speak of 
the murders and suicides, and of the miserable wrecks in the hospitals for the 
insane and in the penitentiaries and jails. 

The flagstafif for Fort Pembina, a single oak stick, "seventy-five feet without 
splicing," was erected November 28, 1801, and at the raising the men were given 
"two gallons of high wines, four fathoms of tobacco, and some flour and sugar, 
to make merry." But it was not alone the aborigines who exceeded the bounds 
of sobriety, for it is written, that on New Year's day the men of the X. Y. Com- 
pany and the Hudson's Bay Company came over to Fort Pembina, and the 
manager treated the company assembled to "two gallons of alcohol, five fathoms 
of tobacco and some flour and sugar, the neighbors and everybody else of both 
sexes and all classes losing their senses, and according to the narrator, 'becoming 
more troublesome than double their number of Indians.' " 

Good drinking water was scarce on the hunt and in the midst of the winter 
of 1801-02 (February 28th), Henry returned from hunting almost famished, 
and declared that "a draught of water was the sweetest beverage he ever drank." 

Of the Indian when not degenerated by the use of intoxicants it may be said 
there is no selfishness in him. His anger and his appetite in those days were 
uncontrollable, but there is no human love stronger than his for home and kindred, 
and he seldom forgot to recognize "discretion" as "the better part of valor," 
and for that he has been called cowardly. No matter what the Indian's prospect 
for success in battle might be, the moment that he realized that his women and 
children were in danger he would retire. Their protection was his first con- 
sideration. Aside from that his creed was a life for a life, a scalp for a scalp. 
If the Indians traveled a thousand miles, enduring privation and dangers that 
were appalling, it was for scalps to recompense for similar losses. It was not 
the love of bloodshed, or for the wanton destruction of human life. It was for 
revenge, none the less sweet because indulged by the untutored tribesmen. 

NORTH-WEST AND X. Y. CONSOLID.\TION 

In 1805 Hugh McGillis, partner in the North-West Company, had charge of 
the Fond du Lac district, with trading posts at every available point on the south 
side of Lake .Superior, across the country to the Mississippi River, up that 
stream to its source, and down on the Red River. The company had extended 
its sphere of activity even to the very center of the Louisiana purchase ; thev 
were reaching out to the headwaters of the Missouri River, and pushing their 
way on to the Columbia and to the Arctic seas. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 47 

The headquarters of Mr. McGilHs were at Leech Lake, and he also had 
an important post at Cass Lake, Minnesota. 

Cuthbert Grant had charge of the post at Sandy Lake, near grounds covered 
now by Aitkin, Minn., and had a number of other posts in the surrounding 
country. 

Robert Dickson was an independent Canadian trader, having his main post 
on the Mississippi River, near what is now St. Cloud, and another at Cass Lake, 
in charge of George Anderson. 

At all these posts English goods were being sold without the payment of 
duties ; most of the posts being fortified, and many of them flying the British 
flag, the "Second Union Jack," which, since 1801 had embraced the cross of 
St. Patrick in addition to those of St. George and St. Andrew. Canadian traders 
assumed the right to make or break Indian chiefs, and were holding their friend- 
ship and confidence by tlie presentation of medals, and using intoxicating liquors 
to demoralize and debauch them. 

Alexander Henry was much concerned in February, 1806, when he heard 
of Lieut. Zebulon Montgomery Pike's expedition, which was then at Leech 
Lake, understanding that it was proposed to force the traders to pay duties on 
the goods used by them in trade in United States territory. 

The population of the Red River country in 1805 is given by Henry as 
seventy-five white men, forty women, mixed-blood, and si.xty children, mixed- 
blood. The women were the wives of the traders and their men, all Indian and 
mixed-bloods, and the children were all mixed-bloods, although returned as 
whites. 

The Indian population was given as 160 men, 190 women and 250 children. 

FIRST FAMILY NAMES 

The family names of nearly every mixed-blood family, now or recently 
residing in the Turtle Mountains, may be found among the employees of the 
several fur companies operating on the Red River or in that region. Among 
those mentioned by Alexander Henry in connection with the fur trade in the 
Red River country are the following: 

Francois Allaire, Michel Allaire, Michel Allary, Francois Amiot, Antoine 
Azure, Joseph .\zure, Alexis Bercier, Joseph Bercier, Antoine Bercier, Joseph 
Boisseau, Francois Boucher. Louis Brozzeau, Augustin Cadolte, Michel Cadotte, 
Murdoch Cameron Duncan Cameron, Antoine Dubois. Francois Dubois, Nich- 
olas Ducharme, Pierre Ducharme, Pierre Falcon, Michel Fortier, Pierre Fortier 
Jacques Germain, St. Joseph Germain, Antoine Gingras, Jean Baptiste Godin, 
Louis Gordon, Alphonso Goulet, Jacques Goulet, Jean Baptiste Goulet, Francois 
Hamel, Francois Henry, Francois Houle, Jerome Jerome, Francois Langie, 
Jacques Laviolette, Jean Baptiste Lemay, Louis Lemay, Pierre Lemay, Duncan 
McGillis, Hugh McGillis, Alexander McKay, Alexis McKay, Ambrose Mar- 
tineaii, Hy Norbert. Alexis Plante, Joseph Plante, Augustin Poisier, Andrew 
Poitras, Duncan Pollock, Joseph Premeau, John Roy Ross, Augustin Ross, Jean 
Baptiste Ross, Vincent Ross, John Sayers, Angus Shaw, Alex Wilkie. 

January i, 1805, Mr. Henry learned of the consolidation of the North-West 



48 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Company and the X. Y. Company, and gave the following as his views of the exist- 
ing conditions: 

"It certainly was high time for a change on this river. The country being 
almost destitute of beaver and other furs, and the Indians increasing in number 
daily from Red Lake and the Fond du Lac country. The X. Y. had been lavish 
of their property, selling very cheap, and we, to keep the trade in our hands, had 
been obliged to follow their example. Thus by our obstinate proceedings we 
had spoiled the Indians. Every man who had killed a few skins was considered 
a chief and treated accordingly; there was scarcely a common buck to be seen; 
all wore scarlet coats, had large kegs and flasks, and nothing was purchased by 
them but silver works, strouds and blankets. Either every other article was let 
go on debts and never paid for, or given gratis on request. This kind of com- 
merce had ruined and corrupted the natives to such a degree that there was no 
bearing with their insolence. If they misbehaved at our houses and were checked 
for it, our neighbors were ready to approve their scoundrelly behavior, and 
encourage them to mischief, even offering them protection if they were in want 
of it. By this means the most notorious \illains were sure of refuge and resource. 
Our servants of every grade were getting extravagant in their demands, indolent, 
disaffected toward their employers and lavish with the property committed to 
their charge. I am confident that another year could not have passed without 
bloodshed between ourselves and the Saulteurs." 

In May, following the consolidation of the two fur companies, the Indians 
were encamped about the fort drinking, when one Indian stabbed another to 
death. The murdered man left five children and the scene at his burial was 
heartrending. In the carousals that followed a son of Net-no-kwa, the foster 
mother of John Tanner, the "White Captive," had his face disfigured for life, 
and another Indian who came to his relief met the same fate. 

HENRY SUFFERS FROM THE .SIOUX 

July 3, 1805, a large body of Sioux fell u])on a small camp of Henry's Indians 
on the Tongue River, and killed or carried off as prisoners fourteen persons — 
men, women and children. Henry's father-in-law was the first one killed. His 
mother-in-law reached the woods in safety, but finding that one of the younger 
children had been left by the young woman in whose charge it was placed, she 
kissed the older children and went back for that one. She recovered the child, 
but was stricken down by the Sioux. Springing to her feet she drew a knife and 
plunged it into the neck of her antagonist, but others coming up, she was dis- 
patched. 

All of the bodies of the dead were shot full of arrows. The skull of Henry's 
father-in-law was carried away for a drinking cuji, and indignities perpetrated 
on other bodies too horrible to describe. 

TRI.^L OK THE NEW POLICY 

From the time of the consolidation of the companies there was a change in 
policy — a change in the grade and strength of the liquors sold to the Indians, and 
in the profits, which were greater, and from that time on there were no presents. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 49 

and no liquor given to induce trade, but an amicable arrangement was made 
between the North-West and Hudson's Bay companies whereby strife, for a 
while, ceased, and the Indians were obliged to pay for whatever they received. 
But this happy condition did not continue to exist, as we shall see later. It was 
bad enough before. 

October 6, 1805, the Hudson's Bay Company built their new post at Pembina, 
and Alexander Henry, in carr>'ing out the new policy, immediately made a divi- 
sion of the Indians, giving the Hudson's Bay Company, Tabishaw and other 
troublesome Indians among their portion, and thereupon refused to make the 
usual distribution of liquors ; being determined that they should not taste a drop 
while they lay around the fort idle, but gave them credit for many necessary 
articles. Some flattered, some threatened, and others caressed him; still others 
declared that they would not hunt, but to no purpose, they were still refused. 
"With no X. Y. to spoil and support them in idleness, we obliged them to pay 
their debts," wrote Mr. Henry, "and not a drop was given them at the fort." 

CHANGE IN MAN.\GERS 

Mr. Henry was succeeded for a short time at Fort Pembina by Mr. Charles 
McKenzie, and then by Mr. John Wills. John Tanner in his Narrative says, 
relative to his experience with the latter, that Mr. Wills called the Indians 
together, and giving them a ten-gallon keg of rum and some tobacco, told them 
that thereafter he v/ould not credit them to the value of a needle, but would give 
them whatever was necessary for their convenience and comfort in exchange 
for whatever they had to sell. He not only refused them credit, but in many 
instances abused the Indians for asking it. Tanner was ordered away from the 
fort because he asked for the accommodation which had hitherto been extended 
him, and in his distress for the necessaries of life, he went to the Hudson's Bay 
Company's agent, and was given the credit desired. 

When he brought in his peltries Mr. Wills forcibly took possession of them, 
and threatened to kill him when he demanded them, and did draw a pistol on 
him when he came to recover them and turn them over to the Hudson's Bay 
Company, pursuant to his agreement. 

OUTLYING POSTS WITHDRAWN 

The winter of 1805-06 the opposition having dropped out, there was no longer 
reason to keep up outlying posts. Henry's return of the catch at Fort Pembina 
that season embraced 776 beaver skins, 74 bear, 533 wolf, 276 fox, 63 raccoon, 
140 fisher, 102 otter, 271 marten and 141 mink. 

One year later the Hudson's Bay Company reestablished its trading house at 
Pembina, in charge of Hugh Heney, who arrived at the post September 12, 1807, 
with two boats from Hudson Bay for the Hudson's Bay Company. Mr. Heney 
extended the usual credits to worthy Indians, notwithstanding the previous under- 
standing with Alexander Henry. The population of the Red River country in 
1807, not in the employ of the fur companies, aside from Indians, numbered 
forty-five, known as "freemen." 

On September 12, 1807, the post at Grand Forks was reestablished by Alex- 

Vol. I— « 



50 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

ander Henry's sending his cousin, William Henry and seven men there from 
Fort Pembina. A week later, on September 19th, Hugh Heney sent a boat and 
a skiff and six men to Grand Forks to establish a Hudson's Bay Company post 
at that point. 

ANARCHY AND HOSTILITY 

ft 

The spring of 180S opened at Fort Pembina upon scenes brutal and lawless 
in the extreme, but so familiar had these crimes become to Alexander Henry 
that in his journal he briefly alludes to the murder of an Indian by his wife, and 
to a disturbance on that day, when the Indians in camp at the fort used some 
kegs of high wines that had been given them by William Henry, then in charge 
of the fort, and as a parting treat a ten-gallon keg of alcohol, gratis. 

Chief Porcupine's son was murdered, receiving fifteen stabs from a relative, 
and Mr. Henry observes : "Murders among these people are so frequent that 
we pay little attention to them. The only excuse is that they were drunk." 

A NIGHT ATTACK 

The fort at Pembina was attacked by a party of 200 Sioux at midnight of 
July 22, 1808. There were then twenty-two men bearing arms, fifty women and 
many children encamped in the vicinity. 

Alexander Henry defended the fort with the men encamped outside, nine 
men inside, and a mortar loaded with one pound of powder and thirty balls, 
which had recently been added to the equipment. 

At the hour of attack the Indians had been drinking heavily, and were gen- 
erally asleep in their tents. Their arms were in the fort and the gates were 
closed, but when roused they clambered over the stockade and secured their 
artlis, hurrying the women and children into the fort. 

The piece when in action was aimed in the direction where the Sioux could 
be plainly heard addressing their men, and no such noise as its roar had ever 
been heard on the Red River before. The balls clattered through the tree tops 
and some took effect, for the lamentations of the Sioux for their fallen comrades 
could be distinctly heard. 

For a few moments only the firing continued and the Sioux were next heard 
at some distance, then farther off, farther and farther. About sunrise they could 
be dimly discerned filing away to the southward. 

Their pursuers found the stain of blood where the Sioux were first heard, and 
evidence of a hasty retreat. On the spot where they put on their war bonnets 
and adjusted their accoutrements, making ready for the assault, upwards of one 
hundred old shoes were found ; also some scalps, remnants of leather and buffalo 
robes, saddle cloths, pieces of old saddles, paunches and bladders of water for 
their journey — and a lone grave on the prairie where one of their dead had been 
left. The loss at the fort was one dog killed by the Sioux shots. 

POSTS ON THE RED RIVER 

The furs sent from the Red River posts in 1808 included 696 beaver skins, 161 
black bear, 956 marten, 196 mink, 168 otter, 118 fisher, 46 raccoon. There were 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 51 

also shipped 3,159 pounds of maple sugar. The provisions consumed at Fort 
Pembina by the party of that year, consisted, among other things, of 147 buiifalo 
(63,000 pounds), 6 deer, 4 bears, 775 sturgeon (weighing from 50 to 150 pounds 
each), 1,150 other fish, 140 pounds of pounded meat and 325 bushels of potatoes. 

Alexander Henry was ordered August 3, 1808, to the Saskatchewan, to take 
charge of that district (where he lived three years) and in a few days bade fare- 
well to the Red River, after sixteen winters among the Chippewa. 

He was drowned in the Columbia River near St. George, May 22, 1814, on 
the way in a small boat from St. George to board a vessel called the Isaac Tod, 
which lay at anchor outside the bar at the mouth of the river. 

The post at Pembina, seized by Governor Robert Semple, March 30, 1816, 
was maintained until 1823. Charles Hesse and Alexander Fraser were there 
when it Vv'as taken over by the Hudson's Bay Company. 

CHARLES HESSE 

Charles Hesse was a clerk in the employ of the North-West Company at 
Grand Portage in 1779, and is mentioned in connection with Red River matters 
by Henry, October 16, 1801, when he and his young wife arrived at Red Lake. 
On February 22, 1804, they went to Red Lake for maple sugar. September i8th 
Hesse left Pembina with eight men to reestablish the post at Park River, which 
was accomplished the first of October. At the same time Augustin Cadotte 
reopened trade at Salt River, to oppose the X. Y. Company. 

In one of the battles between the Sioux and Chippewa, Hesse's property was 
destroyed and all his family were killed, except a daughter, who was taken pris- 
oner by the Sioux. Hesse invaded the camp alone in the hope of effecting her 
rescue, and the Sioux had such great admiration for his bravery that they gave 
him an opportunity to redeem her. He succeeded in raising a considerable sum 
for that purpose from his fellow traders, but his daughter refused to go with 
her white father, preferring her dusky Sioux warrior who had treated her kindly. 

E.\RLY TRAFFIC ON THE RED RIVER 

There was traffic of considerable importance on the Red River in these 
early days. Some of the ladings by the North-West Company from Pembina 
in 1808, bound for the mouth of the Assiniboine and Mouse rivers, were as 
follows : 

A long boat — Angus McDonald, Charles Larocque, Pierre Martin, Jean Bap- 
tiste Lambert, 282 bags of pemmican, i bag potatoes, 42 kegs of grease, 2 kegs 
of gum, 224 pieces, 2 pair of cart wheels, i leather tent, i oilcloth tent, i cow 
(buffalo, slaughtered), bark and wattap (for repairing canoe). 

A boat — Joseph Lambert, Pierre Vandle, Antoine Lapointe, 2 kegs of gum, 
5 kegs of grease, 107 pieces, i bag potatoes, i pair cart wheels, i leather tent, 
I oilcloth tent, i cow. 

A Lake Winnipeg canoe — Houle (may be Francois) Charbonneau, Fleury, 
Suprcnnant, 21 bags pemmican, i keg of potatoes, 3 kegs of grease, 24 pieces, 
I buffalo. 



52 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

A canoe — Andre Beauchemin, Joseph Bourree, 20 packs, W. W. 2, 13 bags 
of pemmican, i bag of potatoes, 3 kegs of grease, 36 pieces, i buffalo. 

A canoe — Angus Brisbois, Jean Baptiste Larocque, Jean Baptiste Demerais, 
20 packs, W. W. 2, 9 taureaux, 3 kegs or grease, 2 bags of potatoes, 32 packs 
and McD.'s baggage, 2 bales of meat, i bufJalo. 

A canoe — Louis Demerais, Joseph Plante, Cyrile Paradis, Alichael Damp- 
house, 10 packs, W. W. 2, 2 kegs of grease, 2 bags of potatoes, 12 pieces and 
Henry's baggage, 2 bufifalo and 4 bales of meat. 

L. L. canoe — Charles Bottineau, Jervis (Gervais) Assiniboine, 22 kegs of 
grease, i bag of potatoes, 10 bags of potatoes, 32 pieces, i bufi'alo. 

S. canoe — Antoine Larocque, Bonhomme Menteur, 10 kegs of grease, i bag 
potatoes, I cow. 



CHAPTER V 
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 

EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE PURCHASE — ^DISCOVERY AND ACQUISITION LEWIS AND 

CLARK ^THE JUNE RISE IN THE MISSOURI RIVER — THE ARIKAR,\ VILLAGES — ■ 

GREAT HERDS OF BUFFALO, ELK AND OTHER GAME MANDAN VILLAGES FORT 

MANDAN THE FLAG ON FORT MANDAN STARS AND STRIPES — THE WINTER OF 

1804-05 IN NORTH DAKOTA THE BEAUTIFUL NORTHERN LIGHTS VISITING 

TRADERS — SAKAKAWEA, THE BIRD-WOMAN- — ^THE MISSOURI FUR COMPANY THE 

RETURN OF THE MANDAN CHIEF. 

"Though watery deserts hold apart 

The worlds of east and west, 
Still beats the self-same human heart 
In each proud nation's breast." 

— Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

DISCOVERY AND ACQUISITION 

The Mississippi River was discovered by Fernando de Soto, a native of Spain 
who in 1519, accompanied the governor of Darien (now Panama) to America, 
leaving his service in 1528, to explore the coast of Guatemala and Yucatan in 
search of a passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. After explorations 
and military service under Pizarro in Peru, early in April, 1538, he undertook 
the conquest of Florida, then a vast region under the Emperor Charles V of 
Spain, sailing with a large expedition, and arriving at Tampa Bay, then called 
Espiritu Santo, May 25, 1539. Seeking gold he explored the rivers of Florida, 
contending with Indians and pestilential fever, and marched to the northwest 
and reaching the Mississippi River in the spring of 1541, he marched southwest 
and northwest in his discoveries, and to the White River, his western limit, then 
proceeding south in March and April, 1542, along the Washita to, and follow- 
ing, the banks of the Mississippi, during May or June, he contracted the fever 
and died at the age of forty-six. His body wrapped in a mantle was buried in 
the stream. 

Spaniards have the reputation of being unsuccessful colonizers and de Soto's 
followers were no exception to the rule. A statement in verse by Prof. William 
P. Trent, in 1898, accurately describes the quality of their policy, and its results: 

"Thine hour has come : a stronger race 

Succeeds and thou must fall, 
Thy pride but adding to thy sad disgrace. 
As wormwood unto gall. 

53 



54 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

And yet thou hast but reaped what thou hast sown, 

For in thy pride of strength, 
Thou didst the kingdom of the mind disown. 

And so art sunk at length." 

In the seventeenth century, Robert CavaUer Sieur de La Salle, emigrant from 
France to Canada in 1666, and founder of La Chine, in 1669, was leader of an 
exploring expedition to the head of Lake Ontario and subsequently to the Ohio 
River and down that river to the site of the present City of Louisville. 

In the autumn of 1674, he went to France, and as the result obtained a grant 
of Fort Frontenac and the settlement May 13, 1675. In 1678, having estab- 
lished in Canada a center for the fur trade of French and Indian settlers in 
opposition to another organization, he obtained permission from the French 
government to carry on western explorations for five years, to establish posts 
and have exclusive control of the trade in bufi'alo skins, exception being made 
to trade with the Ottawas who disposed of their furs in Montreal. 

In this voyage of discovery, with a company of about thirty men, he sailed 
for La Rochelle, July 14th, and having established a post, and near the mouth 
of the Niagara River, built a boat of 55 tons, called the "GrifYon," in August, 
1679, set out on his expedition, passing through Lakes Erie, St. Clair, Huron 
and Michigan to Green Bay, thence in canoes to the mouth of the St. Joseph's 
River, where he established a trading post called Fort Miami, then ascending 
the St. Joseph's, he crossed to the Kankakee and sailed down until he reached a 
village of the Illinois, with whom he treated and in January, 1680, having partly 
built a post near the present site of Peoria, called Fort Crevecoeur, he retraced 
his steps to Canada from the mouth of the St. Joseph's, striking across Michigan, 
made his way overland to Lake Erie, and then to his post at Niagara. There he 
assembled another party and set out again for Fort Crevecoeur with supplies, 
but finding the fort abandoned he explored the Illinois River to its moutli, and 
returned for recruits and supplies. December 21, 1681, he started with a party 
from Fort Miami, ascended the Chicago River, crossed to the Illinois and 
descended to the Mississippi, and camping with the Indians kept on until the 
river divided, exploring each channel to the Gulf of Mexico, and on April 9, 
1682, erected a cross and a monument bearing the arms of France and the inscrip- 
tion: "Louis the Great, King of France and of Navarre, Reigns This Ninth of 
April, 1G82," at the mouth of the Mississippi, and ran up the French flag, 
taking formal possession of the country through which the river flowed. The 
chanting of the Te Deum, the Exaudiat and the Domine Salvum fac Regem, was 
included in the exercises, which closed with the firing of a salute and cries of 
^'Vive le Roi." 

Possession was proclaimed in the following words as translated for Sparks' 
Life of La Salle: 

"In the name of the most high, mighty, invincible and victorious prince, 
Louis the Great, by the grace of God, King of France and of Navarre, four- 
teenth of that name, this ninth day of April, 1682, I, in virtue of the commis- 
sion of His Majesty, which I hold in my hand, and which may be seen by all 
whom it may concern, have taken, and do now take in the name of His Majesty 
and of his successors to the crown, possession of this coimtry of Louisiana, the 
seas, harbors, ports, bays, adjacent straits, and all the nations, people, provinces. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 55 

cities, towns, villages, mines, minerals, fisheries, streams and rivers, comprised 
in the extent of said Louisiana, from the mouth of the great river St. Louis 
on the eastern side otherwise called Ohio, Aligin, Sipore or Chukagona, and this 
with the consent of the Chaonanons, Chickachas and other people dwelling 
therein, with whom we have made alliance, as also along the river Colbert, or 
Mississippi and rivers which discharge themselves therein, from its source, 
beyond the country of the Kious or Nadoucessious, and this with their consent, 
and with the consent of the Motantes, Illinois, Mesiganeas, Matches, Koreas, 
which are the most considerable nations dwelling therein, with whom also we 
have made alliance, either by ourselves or by others in our behalf, as far as its 
mouth by the sea or Gulf of Mexico, about the twenty-seventh degree of the ele- 
vation of the North Pole and also to the mouth of the River of Palms; upon 
the assurance which we have received from all these nations that we are the 
first Europeans who have descended or ascended the said River Colbert; hereby 
protesting against all who may in future undertake to invade any or all of these 
countries, people or lands, above described, to the prejudice of the rights of His 
Majesty, acquired by the consent of the nations therein named. Of which, and 
all that can be needed, I hereby take to witness those who hear me and demand 
an act of the notary as required by law." 

Spain was then in possession of the Floridas and of the country west of 
Louisiana, which territory embraced all of the country lying between the AUe- 
ghanies and the Rocky Mountains, drained by the streams entering the Gulf of 
Mexico, and their tributaries. It embraced West Virginia, part of Pennsyl- 
vania, North Carolina and Georgia on the east, and parts of Montana, Wyoming 
and Colorado on the west, and all of the present states of Iowa, Missouri, 
Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota and parts 
of North Dakota, New Mexico and Texas. 

On La Salle's way back to Canada, he laid the foundations of Fort St. 
Louis on the Illinois, and in November, 1683, reached Quebec. He then pro- 
ceeded to France and proposed the settlement of the Mississippi region and 
the conquest of the mining country of Mexico then held by Spain, and April 
14, 1684, he was appointed commandant of all the country from Fort St. Louis 
to the mouth of the Mississippi. He then, on August ist, headed an expedition 
of four ships with 280 colonists to go by sea to the Gulf of Mexico, stopping at 
Santo Domingo, but they passed the mouth of the Mississippi, early in January, 
1685, and landed at the entrance of Matagorda Bay, where he built a fort, called 
St. Louis, and made an attempt at settlement, but it was savagely attacked by 
the Indians and Spanish, who claimed the country, and it proved a failure. 
Januarj' 7, 1687, he undertook to make his way back to the Illinois, and on March 
19th, was shot and killed in a revolt of his men. 

' LIMITS ANn TRANSFER 

The line defining the drainage basin of the Mississippi River on the west 
constituted the limits of "Louisiana" as proclaimed by La Salle, and was adopted 
as the "Louisiana Purchase." The River Palms which was the eastern limit of 
Louisiana, flows into Palm Sound, now called Sarasota Bay, its mouth being 
opposite the southern extremity of Palm Island, now called Sarasota Key. 



56 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

The first transfer relative to the Territory of Louisiana was a grant of com- 
mercial rights as far north as the Illinois River for a period of ten years by 
Louis XIV to Antoine de Crozat, September 14, 1712, subsequently transferred 
to the Mississippi Company, and the entire region known under the name of 
Louisiana together with New Orleans and the island on which that city stands 
was ceded to Spain by treaty of November 3, 1762. Then representatives of 
France, Spain, Great Britain and Portugal met at Paris, February 10, 1763, to 
define the boundaries of their respective possessions in North America, and 
France ceded to Great Britain the territory east of the Mississippi and north 
of latitude thirty-one degrees, and the Mississippi became the boundary between 
Louisiana and the British colonies. The Red River and its tributaries including 
parts of North Dakota and Jilinnesota and the Canadas became the undisputed 
property of Great Britain. On April 21, 1764, Spain ceded to Great Britain 
all of her territory east of the Mississippi River and south of latitude thirty-one 
degrees. 

September 3, 1783, in the settlement of boundaries at the close of the Revo- 
lutionary war, the United States received from Great Britain all that part of the 
original Louisiana ceded to the latter by France in 1763, viz., the Territory of 
Louisian;!, east of the Mississippi River and north of latitude thirty-one degrees, 
and Great Britain ceded back to Spain the territory south of latitude thirty-one 
degrees and east of the Mississippi River, which the former had received by the 
treaty of 1763, effectually closing the Mississippi to the United States. Then 
came the retrocession by Spain of the colony or Province of Louisiana to France 
in 1800. 

October i, 1800, by the "Treaty of San Ildefonso," Spain retroceded to 
France the colony or Province of Louisiana, with the same extent it had when 
France originally possessed it, south of latitude thirty-one degrees and east of 
the Mississippi River. This was a secret treaty and Spanish ofiicers still held 
possession. 

April 30, 1803, for the sum of $15,000,000, the Republic of France ceded to 
the United States the Territory of Louisiana with the same extent that it had 
in the hands of Spain, and when France possessed it, and the United States 
accepted the territory between the Mississippi and Perdido rivers. The terms 
were arranged on the part of the United States by James Monroe, who had been 
a major in the Revolutionary war, afterwards secretary of war in Madison's 
cabinet during the War of 18 12, and fifth President of the United States. He 
was sent to France by President Jefferson, of whom George F. Hoar, senator 
from Massachusetts said: "When we recall Jefferson we recall him with the 
Declaration of Independence in one hand and the treaty for the annexation of 
the Louisiana Territory in the other." 

The treaty was signed by Robert R. Livingston, United States minister to 
France from iSor to 1804, and James Monroe, on the part of the United 
States, and Barbe Marbois, on the part of France. Livingston had been instructed 
to negotiate for New Orleans and the Mississippi boundary line; the object of 
the United States Government being to remove all cause for irritation between 
this Government and the French, but Napoleon directed Marbois to offer to 
transfer the whole of Louisiana. He said: "I renounce Louisiana. It is not 
only New Orleans that I wish to yield, it is all the colony, without reserving any- 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 57 

thing." Provided, he could secure 50,000,000 francs. He secured 80,000,000 
francs, 20,000,000 of which were to be applicable to the extinguishment of 
claims against France, and 60,000,000 were to be paid in cash to France. Napo- 
leon was in need of money, having sacrificed 200,000,000 francs in his expedition 
against Santo Domingo in i(So2-03, without result. 

The region comprehended in this purchase included all the country west of 
the Mississippi not occupied by Spain, as far north as British Territory, and com- 
prised the whole or part of the present states of Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, 
Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North 
Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming. 

The American flag was first raised in New Orleans, December 20, 1803. By 
act of Congress March 26, 1804, the territory was divided into two govern- 
ments, that of "Orleans," including the present State of Louisiana west of the 
Mississippi, and a portion east of the river, and a section called "Louisiana," 
comprising all the country north and west of that river. April 8, 1812, the 
Territory of Orleans was admitted into the Union under the title of the State 
of Louisiana, and on the 14th of the same month the remainder of the region 
east of the Mississippi now under the jurisdiction of the state was added. 
The name of the remainder of the territory which had been organized as the 
"Territory of Louisiana" with its capital at St. Louis on March 3, 1805, was on 
the 4th of June, 1812, changed to "Missouri." 

On the day of the Louisiana Centennial Celebration, April 12, 1912, the 
courthouse commissioners floated over the new courthouse in New Orleans, a 
magnificent Louisiana flag, consisting of a solid blue field with the coat-of-arms 
of the state, the pelican feeding its young in white in the center, with a ribbon 
beneath, also in white, containing in blue the motto of the state, "Union, Justice 
and Confidence." This flag had been in use previous to 1861, and after 1877, 
but was not legalized as the state flag until July i, 191 2. Together with the 
stars and stripes it now waves over the state house whenever the General 
Assembly is in session, and on public buildings throughout the state on all legal 
holidays and whenever otherwise declared by the governor or the General 
Assembly. 

The last conflict of arms between Great Britain and the United States, closing 
the War of 1812, was a great battle of which Gen. Andrew Jackson was the 
commanding officer, fought at New Orleans, January 8, 1815, now a legal holiday 
in Louisiana. The British were defeated. Accounts of casualties differ. Some 
give the loss to the British as 2,000, killed, wounded and captured, and the 
Americans as seven killed and six wounded ; otherwise reported eight killed and 
fourteen wounded. James Monroe in a despatch at the time said : "History 
records no example of so glorious a victory obtained with so little bloodshed on 
the part of the victorious." See p. 127. 

WESTERN EXPLORATION 

In 1776, John Ledyard of Connecticut, accompanied Captain James Cook on 
his third voyage around the world, in the hope of reaching the Pacific Coast for 
the purpose of exploration. Captain Cook was murdered by the natives of the 
Sandwich (now the Hawaiian) Islands, and his expedition returned to Eng- 



58 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

land, but persisting in his efforts to explore the Pacific Coast, armed with 
passports from the Russian Government, procured through Thomas Jefferson, 
then United States minister to France, Ledyard, in 1786, left St. Petersburg, 
intending to go by land to Kamschatka, cross on one of the Russian vessels to 
Nootka Sound, enter the latitude of the Missouri, and penetrate through to the 
United States; departing on his journey with full assurance of protection while 
passing through Russian territory. Two hundred miles from Kamschatka, he 
went into winter quarters, and while preparing for his journey the next spring, 
he was arrested February 24, 1788, by an officer of the Russian Government, 
and, forbidden to proceed on his explorations, was conveyed by day and night 
in a closed carriage direct to Poland, where he was released and given to under- 
stand that if again found in Russian territor}-, he would be hanged. Broken in 
health and spirits, he died in Cairo, Egypt, January 17, 1789, at the age of 
thirty-eight. Many extracts from his letters to Jefferson have been published. 

In 1792, Thomas Jeft'erson, then secretary of state in the cabinet of George 
Washington, President of the United States, proposed to the American Philo- 
sophical Society a subscription to engage some competent person to explore 
Louisiana, by ascending the Missouri River, crossing the mountains and descend- 
ing to the Pacific Coast, as Lewis and Clark finally did. 

Capt. Meriwether Lewis of the First United States Infantry, then stationed 
at Charlottesville, Va., on recruiting service solicited his selection for this service. 
He was to be accompanied by a single person only, and Andre Michaux, a dis- 
tinguished French botanist, received the appointment. They went as far as 
Kentucky, when the French minister recalled Michau.x, on the plea that his 
services were required elsewhere by his government in botanical research. Thus 
a second attempt to explore Louisiana failed. 

THE UNITED STATES IN THE PURCH.ASE OF LOUISI.'\X.ii 

In 1801 Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated President of the United States. 
Spain had ceded Louisiana back to France and Napoleon Bonaparte was pre- 
paring to defend it against the whole world, but the war clouds of Europe were 
threatening. Spain had denied to the United States rights previously enjoyed in 
Louisiana and there was dissatisfaction with France through her attitude in 
the Floridas. The Mississippi was practically closed to the United States. A 
proposition had been submitted to the United States Congress, to appropriate 
$5,000,000, and send an army of 50.000 men to seize the mouth of the Mississippi 
River. Robert R. Livingston, United States minister to France, was in Paris, 
endeavoring to arrange the matter amicably with the French. He was joined by 
James Monroe, of Virginia, commissioned to assist in the work, in whose hands 
the sum of $2,000,000 was placed to secure the cession of New Orleans and the 
Floridas. While these negotiations were pending with no apparent likelihood of 
.success. President Jeft'erson had proposed to Congress that an expedition be 
sent to trace the Missouri River to its source, crossing the highlands, and follow- 
ing the best water communication to the Pacific Ocean. 

Congress had made this appropriation, and Captain Lewis, who was then 
President Jefferson's private secretary', had been chosen to carry the plan into 
effect. Suddenly Napoleon's policy changed and he demanded the L^nited 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 59 

States take not only New Orleans and the Floridas, but the whole of Louisiana, 
and the price finally agreed upon was 80,000,000 francs (about fifteen million 
dollars) the French commissioners insisting, however, that the compact must be 
signed and sealed without delay. The envoys assumed the responsibility and 
completed the treaty, which was ratified by a vote of twenty-four to seven in the 
United States Senate, October 20, 1803. The purchase price included 20,000,000 
francs for the payment of the debts of the Louisiana Province which the United 
States assumed. The total expense of the purchase up to June 20, 1880, was 
$27,267,621. The population of the province at the time of the purchase did not 
exceed 90,000. 

With the conclusion of the treaty. Napoleon, who realized that he must 
lose this vast possession, was happy in the thought that it would not fall to 
England, and that he was free to attack that nationality in another direction. 

Greatness had been "thrust upon'' our country. JeiYerson was perplexed, 
for he did not believe that the constitution warranted this transaction. The 
opposition stormed and ridiculed. The East was bitter in its opposition, but 
those who were pushing their way westward, knew there was no longer danger 
of attack upon our countrj' from the West. The South rejoiced. 

THE LEWIS AND CL.^RK EXPEDITION 

The instructions to Captain Lewis were signed June 20, 1803. It was not 
then known that Louisiana had been ceded to the United States, though such 
treaty was signed on the 30th of April, for the information did not reach this 
country until about the first of July. There were no ocean liners in those days, 
no steamships, no cables to transmit news now flashed across an ocean or a con- 
tinent in a moment; therefore Captain Lewis bore the passports of both the 
French and English ministers, the latter for use on the western part of their 
trip. 

Captain Lewis had been intimate with the Indians ; he was familiar with 
their habits and customs, their hopes and fears, and the tender spots in their 
hearts, and Jefiferson knew that nothing but the impossible would divert him 
from his purpose. He could confide in his capacity and courage, for he had 
known him from boyhood, and for two years had employed him as his private 
secretary. He caused him to take special instruction on scientific subjects and to 
make other needful preparation for his work. His instructions required him 
to study the soil and climate, the topography, the inhabitants, etc., and urged 
upon him the importance of extending to the Indians the most friendly treat- 
ment. 

July 5, 1803, Captain Lewis left Washington, proceeding to Pittsburgh, and 
reaching St. Louis in December of the same year, spent the winter in further 
preparation for work, at the mouth of Wood River on the east side of the 
Mississippi River, outside of the jurisdiction of the Spanish officers. 

William Clark, a younger brother of Gen. George Rogers Clark, was asso- 
ciated with Captain Lewis. He had been in the regular army, had resigned on 
account of ill health, and had served as a captain of militia. His rank on the 
expedition was second lieutenant of artillery until January 31, 1806, when he 
was promoted first lieutenant. He was promised, however, before undertaking 



60 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

the expedition the rank of captain of engineers, and was to have equal rank 
and authority with Captain Lewis. He was so recognized by Captain Lewis. 
His official signature was captain of engineers. 

In addition to Captain Lewis and Captain Clark, the party consisted of four- 
teen picked men from the United States army — born and bred among the 
dangers and difficulties incident to frontier life, nine young men from Kentucky, 
two French watermen, an interpreter, a hunter and the colored servant of 
Captain Clark, named 'Y^ork," also, a corporal and six men and nine water- 
men, who were to return when they reached the Mandan nation. 

Their means of transportation was a keel-boat fifty-five feet long drawing 
three feet of water. It carried one large square sail and twenty-two oars, and 
had a deck of ten feet in the bow and stern, aft'ording cabin and forecastle. 
Midships it was fitted with lockers, which miglit be raised for breastworks in case 
of need. There were, also, two open 1)oats, one of six and the other of seven 
oars. 

After spending the winter at Wood River, they broke camp Alay 14, 1804, at 
4 P. M. and made four miles that evening, the next day making ten miles, and 
reached St. Charles the third day. St. Charles then had about four hundred and 
fifty inhabitants, relying principally for subsistence upon hunting and trade with 
the Indians. 

• THE TUiNF, RISE IN THE MISSOURI 

On the 23rd they found a small American settlement at Goodman Creek, and 
in a few days evidently encountered the "June rise" in the Missouri River, for 
they speak of the cut banks of the river falling so rapidly as to force them to 
change their course instantly to the other side. The sand bars were shifting 
continuously, and the current was so strong, that it was scarcely possible to 
make any headway. Some days by the aid of the sail, even, it was impossible to 
make more than four miles. 

The current of the river at the time of the June rise is about seven miles an 
hour. The river runs nearly bank full from the melting snows in the mountains, 
and the heavy rains of that season, and wherever the current strikes the shore it 
quickly cuts away the banks, which tumble in; several rods of the bank often 
disappearing in one day. The water is extremely muddy, but when settled is 
considered perfectly pure and healthful, and is clear above the mouth of the 
Yellowstone River, where that stream joins the Missouri. 

THE ARIKAR.^i VILLAGES 

Lewis and Clark arrived at the three Arikara villages about three miles 
above the mouth of the Grand River, October 8, 1804. The villages extended 
up the river about four miles, and numbered about two thousand six hundred 
men. The first composed of about sixty lodges, was on an island three miles 
in length, covered with fields of corn, beans, potatoes and squashes. The prin- 
cipal chiefs of the first village were Kakawissassa or Lighting Crow, Pocasse 
or Hay and Piaheto or Eagle's Feather. 

The chief of the second village was Lassel and the chief of the third village, 




WILLIAM CLARK 



MERIWETHER LEW IS 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 61 

Ar-ke-tar-na-shar, who accompanied the expedition to the Mandan villages for 
the purpose of negotiating a peace treaty between the Arikaras and Mandans, 
who were then at war. 

Lewis and Qark met the Indians in council at their respective villages, and 
after stating the object of their visit, urged the importance of maintaining peace 
with the Mandans and Hidatsas, especially in view of the aggressive disposition 
of the Sioux. In token of their appreciation of the friendly advice given them, 
the Indians supplied them liberally from their store of corn and beans. They 
also gave them a quantity of large, rich beans, collected by the gophers ("prairie 
mice" as written in their journal), and secured from their burrows by the 
squaws. In return they gave the Indians a steel corn mill and other appropriate 
presents. 

Several Frenchmen were living at the Arikara villages ; among them Joseph 
Gravelines and Anthony Tabeau, traders, were active in bringing the Indians 
together for a conference on October loth. Another meeting was held on the 
nth at the upper Arikara \'illagc, and another on the I2th. On the 14th they 
passed the forty-sixth parallel. 

Gravelines accompanied one of the chiefs to the Mandan villages in connec- 
tion with the proposed peace negotiations, and a peace treaty was finally arranged 
between the Arikaras, Mandans and Hidatsas, now known as the Berthold 
Indians, which has been maintained between these tribes for more than one 
hundred years. 

Sergt. Patrick Gass, who accompanied the expedition, visited a large number 
of Indian lodges, and in his memoirs left a very interesting description of the 
Arikara lodge or dwelling house, as follows : 

"In a circle of a size suited to the dimensions of the intended lodge, they ' 
set up sixteen forked posts, five or six feet high, and lay poles from one fork 
to another. Against these poles they lean other poles, slanting from the ground 
and extending about four inches above the cross poles; these are to receive the 
ends of the upper poles that support the roof. They next set up four large 
forks fifteen feet high and about ten feet apart, in the middle of the area, 
and poles or beams between these. The roof poles are then laid on, extending 
from the lower poles across the beams, which rest on the middle forks of such 
a length as to leave a hole at the tOp for a chimney. The whole is then covered 
with willow branches, except the chimney and a hole below to pass through. 
On the willow branches they lay grass and lastly clay. At the hole below they 
build a pen about four feet wide and projecting ten feet from the hut, and hang 
a bufifalo skin at the entrance of the hut for a door. This labor, like every other 
kind, is chiefly perfomied by the squaws." 

The ground on the inside of the lodge was excavated for about a foot and 
a half below the surface, and the earth from the excavation was thrown up 
against the poles, forming an embankment which added to the warmth and 
served as a protection in case of attack. The lodges were large enough lo admit 
the horses belonging to the family, separated by a partition from the living 
part. 

In approaching the Arikara villages the expedition had passed through a long 
strip of country occupied by the Sioux, who were threatening and defiant in their 
attitude. Captain Lewis in his joumal, thus writes of them: 



62 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

"Relying on a regular supply of merchandise through the channel of the St. 
Peters (Minnesota) River, they viewed with contempt the merchants of the 
Missouri, whom they never fail to plunder when in their power. Persuasion or 
advice with them is viewed as supplication, and only tends to inspire them with 
contempt for those who ofTer either. The tameness with which the merchants 
of the Missouri have hitherto submitted to their rapacity, has tended not a little 
to inspire them with contempt for the white persons who visit them through 
that channel. A prevalent idea among them, and one that they make the rule 
of their conduct, is that the more illy they treat the traders, the greater quantity 
of merchandise they will bring them, and that they will obtain the articles they 
wish on better terms; they have endeavored to inspire the Ricaras (Arikaras) 
with similar sentiments, but, happily without considerable effect." 

Yet the Sioux were in the possession of some good qualities. The late Gen- 
eral Gouverncur K. Warren served among them as an officer of the United States 
army, and knew them well, and in his reports spoke kindly of them. In 1855, 
he wrote : 

"I have always found the Dakotas exceedingly reasonable beings, with a very 
proper appreciation of their rights. What they yield to the whites they expect 
to be paid for, and I have never heard a prominent man of their nation express 
any opinion in regard to what was due them in which I did not concur. Many 
of them view the extinction of their race as the inevitable result of the operation 
of present causes, and do so with all the feeling of despair with which we should 
contemplate the extinction of our nationality." 

Tlie Siotix claimed a vast extent of country and within its limits were at 
all times ready to contend for what they regarded their rights. Among the 
characteristics of the Sioux was their fondness for intoxicating liquors, and 
they would make almost any sacrifice to obtain it; but of the Arikaras it was 
said by Lewis and Qark: 

"We were equally gratified at the discovery that the Ricarees made use of 
no spirituous liquors of any kind, the example of the traders who bring it to 
them, so far from tempting, having, in fact, disgusted them. Supposing it was 
as agreeable to them as to other Indians, we had offered them whiskey, but they 
refused it with the sensible remark that they were surprised that the father 
should present to them a liquor which would make them fools." 

On another occasion they observed that no man could be their friend who 
tried to lead them into such follies. 

None of the Missouri River Indians were then addicted to the use of intoxi- 
cating liquors, excepting the Sioux, who obtained it from the British traders 
on the Minnesota River, and the Assiniboines who secured it from the British 
traders on the Assiniboine River. 

The attitude of the Arikaras was friendly, and in speaking of the Sioux who 
had closed the way to trade to them, forcing them to rely on the Sioux for 
arms and ammunition, their principal chief said the door to their country was 
now open and no man dare close it. 

There were some things, however, they believed to be essential to their 
happiness. They were poor, but they would give anything for red paint. They 
were tender-hearted and very proud. When one of the soldiers of the expedi- 
tion was punished by whipping, an Indian chief cried aloud in agony. He said 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 63 

liis people sometimes exacted the penalty of death for misdemeanors, but never 
that of being whipped, not even from children. 

GREAT HERDS OF BUFFALO 

October i8th the party reached Cannonball River, and in their journal great 
herds of buffalo, elk, deer and goats (antelope) are noted. From one point they 
counted fifty-two distinct herds of buffalo and three of elk. The great plains 
surrounding the location of the future City of Bismarck were literally covered 
with buffalo, elk, antelope and other game. 

Arriving at Sibley Island on the 20th they made note of the deserted Mandan 
villages in the vicinity of Bismarck and Mandan, and the old fortified village 
about a mile from the site of the present capital of North Dakota. The beau- 
tiful plains and the presence of coal near the locality where Washburn is situated 
were specially attractive features. 

The Mandans informed Lewis and Clark that it was about forty years since 
they left their villages about Bismarck and Mandan, and moved up to the Knife. 
River. 

MANDAN VILLAGES 

October 27, 1804, they went into camp for the winter at a point a short 
distance below the mouth of Knife River, in latitude 47 degrees, 21 minutes, and 
47 seconds, and the computed distance from the mouth of the Missouri, 1,600 
miles. 

On the second day after their arrival, an extensive prairie fire raged in the 
vicinity of the Mandan villages, resulting in several serious accidents. One 
woman, caught by the fire with a half-white baby in her arms, dropped the 
child on the prairie, covered it with a green or uncured buffalo skin, and made 
good her own escape from the flames. The fire passed around the child, leaving 
it uninjured. The Indians accepted this incident as proof that the whites were 
good medicine, and this to a large extent, accounted for their kindly disposition 
toward the expedition. 

October 29th, they had a council with the Indians, and gave appropriate 
presents to the chiefs of each village. To Black Cat the Grand Chief, they gave 
an American flag. 

Tlie chiefs made or recognized that day by Lewis and Clark, were as follows: 

Of the first or lower Mandan village, situated on the present site of Deapolis, 
then known as Matootonha, first chief, Shahaka or Big White; second chief, 
Ka-goh-ha-nii or Little Raven ; inferior chiefs were Ohheena or Big Man, a 
Cheyenne captive adopted by the Mandans, and She-ta-har-re-ra or Coal. 

Of the second village, called Roop-tar-hee, the only one situated on the north 
side of the Missouri River, they made Pose-cop-sa-he or Black Cat, the first chief 
of the village and the grand chief of the whole Mandan tribe. His second chief 
was Car-gar-no-mok-she, or Raven Man Chief ; the inferior chiefs were Taw- 
nuh-e-o Bel-lar-sara and Ar-rat-tana-mock-she, Wolf Man Chief. 

The third village in the immediate vicinity of the present site of Stanton, was 
called Mah-har-ha and of this Ta-tuck-co-pin-re-ha or White Buffalo Robe Un- 
folded, was the first chief, and Min-nis-sur-ra-ree, or Neighing Horse, and 



64 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Le-cong-gar-ti-bar, or Old-Woman-at-a-Distance, were recognized as inferior 
chiefs. 

Half a mile from this village was a Minetaree village called Me-te-har-tan. 
Of this Omp-se-ha-ra, or Black jNloccasin, was first chief, and Oh-harh, or Little 
Fox, second chief. 

The Ahnahaways, called Souliers by the French, lived in this village. They 
merged with the Hidatsas about thirty years later, and have since been recognized 
as a part of that tribe. The Souliers numbered, at this time, about 50 men, the 
Hidatsa 450, and the Mandans 350. 

The fourth village was called Me-te-har-tan. The principal chief was Mar- 
noh-tah, or Big Thief ; he was at war and was killed soon afterwards. 

The chiefs recommended were Mar-se-rus-se, or Tail-of-the-Calumet-Bird, 
Ea-pa-ne-pa, or Two-Tailed-Cakunet-Bird, and War-ke-ras-sa, the Red Shield. 

The fifth or Hidatsa village was on the north side of the Knife River, i^ 
miles above its mouth, near Causey. It was the home of Le Borgne, Mau-pah- 
pir-re-cos-sa-too, the dominating influence in the Mandan villages, but he was 
absent at the time of the arrival of Lewi.s and Clark. The chiefs recommended 
at the council for recognition were Sha-hake-ho-pin-nee, or Little Wolf Medi- 
cine and Ar-rat-toe-no-mook-ge, Man Wolf Chief, who was at war. He was 
represented by Cal-tar-co-ta, or Cherry-on-the-Bush, by whom the usual chief's 
presents were sent to Le Borgne. 

When David Thompson of the North-West Company visited the Mandan 
villages in 1796, he found in the five villages 318 houses and seven tents. There 
were then two villages on the north side of the Missouri River, united in one 
before the visit of Lewis and Clark. This village was about three miles from 
the other Mandan villages on the Knife River. 

FORT MAND.\N 

Lewis and Clark established at their camp a post which was known as Fort 
Mandan, consisting of two rows of huts or sheds, forming an angle where they 
joined each other. Each row had four rooms, fourteen feet square and seven 
feet high, with plank ceiling, and the roof slanting so as to form a loft above the 
rooms, the highest part of which was eighteen feet above the ground. The body 
of the huts formed a wall of that height. Opposite the angle the place of the 
wall was supplied by picketing, and in the rear were two rooms for stores and 
provisions. The American flag was raised over Fort Mandan for the first time 
December 25, 1804, and this was probably the first time that the flag floated in 
North Dakota. 

THE FL.\G ON FORT M.\ND.\N 

The flag raised by Lewis and Clark over Fort Mandan was the flag adopted 
by the United States Congress January 13, 1794, with fifteen stripes and fifteen 
stars, instead of the original thirteen stripes and thirteen stars provided by the 
act of June 14, 1777. Congress first met in Washington November 17, 1800, 
and Ohio, the seventeenth state, was the first one to be admitted in Washington 
and bears the date April 30, 1802. .\fter that there were no states admitted 



ill *?^*^jt)^Vl 



^. 



Zi}t mniteb States Jflag 

Adopted June 14, 1777. 

Flag of the free heart's hope and home 

By angels' hands to valor given; 
Thy stars have lit the welkin dense, 

And all thy hues are born in Heaven. 
Forever float that standard sheet! 

Where breathes the foe but falls before us, 
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet. 

And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us. 

— Joseph Rodman Dralie. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 65 

for ten years, or until Louisiana joined the Union, April 8, 1812. But not until 
the act of April 4, 1818, was provision made for adding a star for each state 
admitted. 

OUR FLAG AND ITS DAY 

"Your Flag and my Flag 1 

To every star and stripe 
The drums beat as hearts beat 

And fifers shrilly pipe! 
Your Flag and my Flag — 
A blessing in the sky: 
Your hope and my hope — 
It never hid a lie! 

Home land and far land, and half the world around. 
Old Glory hears our glad salute, and ripples to the sound I" 

—Wilbur D. Nesbit. 

Since the dawn of our republic there have been at least four distinctive flags 
for which their devotees were willing to sacrifice their lives. They were the 
"Pine Tree State," the "Rattlesnake," "Liberty and Union," and the "Stars and 
Stripes" of 1777. 

Flags of various designs had been in use by the soldiers of the American 
colonies in the early days and Revolutionary as well as more recent exploration 
periods, the "Bear Flag," for example, now being jealously guarded by the 
Pacific Coast pioneers. 

The "New England Flag," used during the Colonial and Provincial periods, 
was white, bearing the red cross of St. George, with a pine tree in the corner. 
The pine tree is still borne on one side of the flag of the State of Massachusetts. 
The flag which was carried at the siege of Boston bore the crosses of St. Andrew 
and St. George in the corner. 

Two years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, on October 
21, 1774, the patriots of Taunton, a small town in the State of Massachusetts, 
as a protest against British rule, raised over the "Green," in the center of the 
town, a flag inscribed "Union and Liberty." It was the first flag of the Ameri- 
can colonies in opposition to the British, and has been immortalized in verse by 
Hezekiah Butterworth under the title of "The Red Flag of Taunton." 

STARS AND STRIPES 

The first stripes used on the American colors were borne by cavalry in 1775. 
The colors presented to the Philadelphia Light Horse Troop, organized 1774, 
were made of bright yellow (for cavalry) silk, forty inches long, thirty-four 
inches broad, and had thirteen blue and silver stripes alternate in the corner or 
canton. Over the crest in the center of the banner, a horse's head, were the 
letters "L. H." (Light Horse). L^nderneath was a scroll, with the words, "For 
These We Strive," and on the sides an Indian and an angel blowing a trumpet. 
The flag that flew from Washington's headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., first 
run up January i, 1776, was composed of thirteen red and white stripes, with 
the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew emblazoned on the blue space, instead 



66 . EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

of the stars. In February of that year from the fleet on the Delaware River the 
same flag floated. 

THE ELEVENTH TOAST 

At the celebration by Congress of the first anniversary of the signing of the 
Treaty of Alliance, Amity and Commerce, which took place at Paris, February 
6, 1778, whereby France recognized the independence of the United States, this 
being the first treaty made by the United States with any foreign power, thirteen 
toasts were drunk. The eleventh honored the flag in a practical manner: 

"May the American stripes bring Great Britain to reason." 

The flag then had thirteen stripes. 

"My forefathers were America in the making; 
They spoke in her council halls ; 
They died on her battlefields ; 
They commanded her ships ; 
They cleared her forests. 
Dawns reddened and paled, 

Stanch hearts of mine beat fast at each new star 
In the Nation's flag. 

Keen eyes of mine foresaw her greater glory; 
The sweep of her seas. 
The plenty of her plains, 
The man-hives in her billion-wired cities. 
Every drop of blood in me holds a heritage of patriotism. 
I am proud of my past. 
I am an American." 

— Elias Lieberman. 

The United States flag was first seen and saluted in foreign lands February 
14, 1778, flying from the United States ship Ranger as she sailed into the harbor 
of Brest, in command of John Paul Jones, and received from the French 
commander the saltUe from the guns of his fleet. 

The decline of the royal ensign took place on the 25th of November, 1783, 
when the British troops evacuated New York, the stars and stripes being hoisted 
in the city while the royal ensign was run down. 

PROPORTIONS ADJU.STED 

June 14, 1777, the United .States Congress adopted a resolution that the flag 
of the thirteen independent states should be thirteerit stripes alternate red and 
white, and that the union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a 
new constellation. The thirteen original states in order of settlement, were: 
Virginia, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maryland, 
Rhode Island, Delaware, North Carolina, New Jersey, South Carolina. Penn- 
sylvania and Georgia. 

The original domain of the United States over which the flag held dominion, 
comprised the thirteen states with the additional area acquired by conquest from 
Great Britain: the whole being bounded on the west by the Mississippi River, 
on the south by the thirty-first parallel of latitude, — the Florida boundary, — 
on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the north by the British possessions. 
The part of the area called the Northwest Territory, in which New York, Penn- 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 67 

sylvania, ]\Iassachusetts, Connecticut and Virginia originally held claims, was 
subsequeritly relinquished to the general government. Its domain is today (1916) 
estimated at three million six hundred and eighty-six thousand seven hundred 
and eighty square miles, including insular dependencies. 

The public announcement of the adoption of the flag and the design, occurred 
on September 3, I///, and it was first displayed at Fort Schuyler in 1777, on 
the site of the present city of Rome, N. Y., where there was a garrison of about 
eight hundred men to whom the new statute regarding the flag was announced 
on the evening of the second day of August, and a flag, composed of cloth 
cut out of wearing apparel, but complete according to the statute, was made, and 
the next day, with due formality, the drummer beating the "assembly," and the 
adjutant reading the resolution, the flag of the republic was raised on the north- 
east bastion of the fort, that being nearest the camp of the enemy. This much 
is absolutely certain regarding the flag's nativity. It cannot be antedated, and it 
had thirteen stars and thirteen stripes, and January 13, 1794, in order to add 
two more states, — Vermont (which produced many strong pioneers for the 
western states, and celebrated her one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary 
July 12, 1916) 1791, Kentucky, 1792 — the flag was changed by law to take 
cftect May i, 1795, to comprise fifteen stripes alternate red and white: the Union 
being represented by fifteen stars, white in a blue field, and this was the national 
flag during the War of 1812, and the one which was apostrophized by Francis 
Scott Key, the "Star-Spangled Banner," while waving over Fort McHenry-, Sep- 
tember 14, 1814, at the unsuccessful bombardment of the City of Baltimore, Md., 
by the British, and which now reposes in the National Museum at Washington. 
It was presented, when its usefulness was over, to Colonel George Armistead, the 
commarKler of the fort, and was inherited by his daughter, Mrs. William Stuart 
Appleton, who in her will bequeathed it to her daughter, who also married an 
Appleton, and was the mother of William Sumner Appleton, now corresponding 
secretary of the Society for the Preservation of Antiquities in Boston. The will 
was broken and the flag passed to her son. Eben Appleton. of New York, who in 
1915 presented it to the National Museum, where it can be seen by the people, "at 
last finding a safe resting-place," writes Sumner Appleton, "for which we must 
all be very glad." 

It was the flag of 1795, under which General Andrew Jackson fought the battle 
of New Orleans, the flag raised by Lewis and Clark at Fort Mandan and Astoria, 
which gave Oregon to the United States, under which Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana 
and Indiana were admitted to the Union of States. With the admission of ]Mis- 
sissippi the flag took thirteen stripes and twenty stars under the act of April 4. 
1818, approved by President James Monroe, that required after the Fourth of July 
following, the flag of the United States should be thirteen horizontal stripes, alter- 
nate red and white, and that the union should comprise twenty stars, white on a 
blue field. 

Also. (Section 2) it was further enacted that on the admission of every 
new state into the Union, one star be added to the union of the flag, and that 
such addition should take effect on the Fourth of July next succeeding such 
admission. 

The first flag of this description was hoisted on the flagstaft' of the old house 
of representatives at Washington on April 13, 1818, and up to the present time 



68 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

this regulation has been observed upon the admission of each new state to the 
Union, except in respect to the United States revenue flag, the stripes on which 
number sixteen, running vertically, but in lOO years of vicissitude more or less 
aggrandizing, the banner seems to have become in a measure self-adjustable, 
for in 1912, by measurements in the process of preparing the pattern it was 
found that while the proportionate size of the blue field to the rest of the flag 
had not been increased, the proportion of blue in the national emblem had grown 
in a marked degree, while the stars had diminished in size. 

THE COAST GUARD FLAG 

The Coast Guard was created by act of Congress January' 28, 19 15, and takes 
the place of the Revenue Cutter Service, established in 1790, and the Life Saving 
Service which dates back to 1848, and constitutes a part of the military forces 
of the United States. 

The distinctive flag flown from the foremast on all coast-guard cutters causes 
many inquiries as to its origin, and the following extracts from the annual 
report of the United States Coast Guard for 1915 will therefore be of interest: 

"Nine years after the establishment of the Revenue Cutter Service, the 
forebear of the existing Coast Guard, Congress, in the act of March 2, 1799, 
provided that : 

" 'The cutters and boats employed in the service of the revenue shall be 
distinguished from other vessels by an ensign and pennant, with such marks 
thereon as shall be prescribed by the President. If any vessel or boat, not 
employed in the service of the revenue, shall, within the jurisdiction of the 
United States, carry or hoist any pennant or ensign prescribed for vessels in such 
service, the master of the vessel so ofi^ending shall be liable to a penalty of 
$100.' 

"Under date of August i, 1799, the secretary of the treasury, Oliver Wolcott, 
issued an order announcing that in pursuance of authority from the President 
the distinguishing ensign and pennant should consist of 'sixteen perpendicular 
stripes, alternate red and white, the Union of the ensign to be the arms of the 
United States in dark blue on a white field.' " 

This picturesque flag, with its vertical stripes, now so familiar in American 
waters, was arranged with historical detail, inasmuch as in the union of the flag 
there are thirteen stars, thirteen leaves to the olive branch, thirteen arrows, and 
thirteen bars to the shield, all corresponding to the original number of states 
constituting the Union at the time of the founding of the Republic. The six- 
teen vertical stripes in the body of the flag are symbolical of the number of stales 
composing the Union when this flag was officially adopted. Originally intended 
to be flown only on revenue cutters and boats connected with the customs service, 
in the passage of time there grew up a practice of flying this distinctive flag from 
certain custom-houses, and finally, by direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, 
in 1874, it was flown from all custom-houses. From then until 1910 it was 
displayed indiscriminately on custom-houses, customs boats, and revenue cutters. 

In order, therefore, that this distinctive ensign, the sign of authority of a 
cutter, should be used for no other purpose as originally contemplated. President 
Taft issued the following Executive Order on June 7, 1910: 




A MANDAN VILLAGE 

From a i)ainting by Charles Bodiner from "Travels to the Interior of North America in 
1832-3-4," by Maximilian, Prince of Wied, 1843. 




WINTER VILLAOE OF THE JIIXETAREES 

From a painting by Charles Bodmer from "Travels to the Interior of North America in 
1832-3-4," by Maximilian, Prince of Wied, 1843. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 69 

"By virtue of the authority vested in me under the provisions of section 2764 
of the revised statutes, I hereby prescribe that the distinguishing flag now used 
by vessels of the Revenue-Cutter Service be marked by the distinctive emblem 
of that service, in blue and white, placed on a line with the lower edge of 
the union, and over the center of the seventh vertical red stripe from the mast 
of said flag, the emblem to cover a horizontal space of three stripes. This change 
to be made as soon as practicable." 

"Upon the establishment of the coast guard, which absorbed the duties of 
the Revenue-Cutter Service, the ensign described above became the distinctive 
flag of coast-guard cutters, which if flown from any other vessel or boat within 
the jurisdiction of the United States will subject the offender to the penalty of 
the law." 

THE WINTER OF l804-'05 

The winter of i8o4-'o5, was a cold one. The mercury sometimes dropped 
as low as 47 degrees below zero, and yet there was much of interest occurring 
during that winter. The Indians were frequent visitors, bringing their corn 
and game in exchange for the work of the blacksmith. Arrow points, made from 
iron hoops, and battle axes from a cast-off sheet-iron stove, were of particular 
value to them. \Vhile the Indians were jealous of the reputation of their wives 
and daughters, and resented any advances made by their brother Indians, they 
were not averse to attentions from their white visitors, and were solicitous to a 
degree for York, who was preferred to any one of the party. 

The soldiers visited the lodges, sometimes dancing for the amusement of the 
Indians. York generally accompanied them and was the star attraction at all 
times, entertaining them with his stories. He assured them that he was a wild 
man until caught and tamed by Captain Clark, and told them other stories of like 
character. 

The Indians made it a rule to offer food to the white men on their first 
entrance to their homes, indeed there was nothing too good to place before them 
and urge upon them, and the union of the whites with the natives, may account 
for the light hair and blue eyes found among the Mandans. 

The women were noted for their industry and for their obedience to their 
husbands' commands. When their husbands desired to make a present to the 
little garrison of meat or corn, they brought it "on the backs of their squaws," 
whose services they were ready to lend for any other purpose for a slight con- 
sideration, or as an act of friendship. 

Many little incidents occurred during the winter to endear the whites to 
the Indians of these villages, but nothing more than the fact that when the 
Sioux made a raid and killed some of their hunters, Captain Clark turned out 
nearly his entire force, armed and equipped, and offered to lead the Indians 
against the Sioux. 

THE BEAUTIFUL AURORA BOREALIS 

The extreme cold did not interfere seriously with the Indian sports, and 
Captain Lewis speaks of the beautiful northern lights, still characteristic of 
North Dakota. He writes: 



70 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

"Along the northern sky was a large space occupied by a pale but brilliant 
color, which, rising from the horizon, extended itself to nearly 20 degrees 
above it. After glistening for some time, its colors would be overcast and 
almost obscured, but again would burst out with renewed beauty. The uniform 
color was pale light, but its shapes were various and fantastic. At times the 
sky was lined with light-colored streaks, rising perpendicularly from the horizon 
and gradually expanding into a body of light in which we could trace the floating 
columns, sometimes advancing, sometimes retreating, and shaping into infinite 
forms the space in which they moved." 

Much of the winter was spent in gaining information from the Indians in 
relation to the country, and as to the number, habits, customs and traditions of 
the several tribes. 

Rene Jessaume had resided at the villages about fifteen years. He was 
entirely familiar with the language and habits of the Indians, and was accordingly 
employed as a Mandan interpreter, and immediately took up his residence at the 
camp of the explorers. In the course of the winter Toussaint Charbonneau was 
employed as an Hidatsa interpreter, and he and his good wife Sakakawea, the 
"Bird-Woman," who became the Shoshone interpreter after reaching the plains 
of Montana, also took up their residence at the fort. Joseph Gravelines was the 
Arikara interpreter, and John B. LePage, who was also employed at the Mandan 
villages, the Cheyenne interpreter. 

VISITING TRADERS 

Hugh McCracken, an independent trader, associated usually with 'the North- 
West Company, was at the Mandan villages at the time of the arrival of Lewis 
and Clark, for the purpose of trading for buffalo robes and horses. The 
explorers took advantage of his presence to send special copies of their pass- 
ports to Mr. Charles Chaboillez and asked the friendly offices of the North- West 
Company on their trip to the Pacific Coast. In due time they received a reply, 
with the assurance that the North-West Company would afl^ord them every 
assistance within their power. 

They were also visited during the winter by Charles McKenzie and Francois 
A. Larocque of the North-West Company, and later, by Hugh Heney, of the 
Hudson's Bay Company. Some of these parties visited Fort Mandan several 
times during the winter, and were allowed to trade at the villages without any 
interference. 

When the river was breaking up in the spring, the Indians fired the prairie, 
and drove the buft'alo on to the ice and killed many of them on cakes of ice and 
towed them ashore. A large number were drowned, and many of these were 
taken by the Indians and used for meat. 

During the winter a large number of specimens were gathered or prepared 
by the party, and shipped to President JeflFerson by the barge which left the 
villages the same day that Lewis and Clark left for the Pacific Coast. 

The river broke up on the 25th of March, 1805, and April ist, the boats were 
again placed in the water. Captain Lewis notes that the first rain since October 
15th, fell on that day. They had spent a winter of bright sunshine, and such 
winters often occur now as well as 100 years ago. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 71 

One day they were out on the river bottoms, in February, and killed 3,000 
pounds of game, among the lot thirty-six deer. Deer are still found on the 
river bottoms. The buffalo are gone, but myriads of ducks and geese still 
come and go.. 

At the time of their departure for the Pacific Coast, Corporal Richard Warf- 
ington, whose term had expired, but who was held in the service for the purpose, 
left in the barge for St. Louis, with Joseph Gravelines, pilot, and six soldiers. 
They carried the specimens intended for the president, and were accompanied 
by an Arikara chief, who went to Wa.shington in charge of Mr. Gravelines. The 
chief died in Washington, but Gravelines returned to the tribe in 1S06, with the 
presents received by the chief, and a message from the President to the tribe. 

On the 7th of April, 1805. the party then consisting of thirty-two persons, 
pulled out of Fort Mandan for the Pacific coast via the headwaters of the 
Missouri. The names of the party were as follows: 

ROSTER OF THE COMPANY 

Commissioned officers : Captains, William Clark, Meriwether Lewis. Non- 
commissioned officers : Sergeants, Patrick Gass, John Ordway, Nathaniel B. 
Prior and Corporal Richard Warfington, detailed for Washington; privates, 
William Bratton, John Colter, John Collins, Peter Cruzette, Joseph Fields, 
Reuben Fields, Robert Frazier, George Gibbon, Silas Goodrich, Hugh Hull, 
Thomas P. Howard, Francis Labiche, Baptiste LePage, Hugh McNeill, John 
Potts, George Shannon, John Shields, John B. Thompson, William Werner, 
Joseph Whitehouse, Alexander Willard, Richard Windsor, Peter Wiser, York. 

The interpreters were George Drewyer and Toussaint Charbonneau, a French- 
Canadian voyageur, the latter accompanied by his wife Sakakawea, and a child 
born Februaiy 11, 1805, in the camp of the explorers at the Mandan villages. 
Drewyer was a half-blood Indian, and was the hunter of the expedition. He was 
afterward associated with Manuel Lisa in the fur trade as George Drouillard. 
They used six canoes and two pirogues (a boat made out of a long soft wood 
log) for their trip above the Mandan villages. One of the canoes was sunk the 
next day. 

THE RETURN 

The expedition returned from the Pacific Coast to the Mandan villages, Sep- 
tember 17, 1806. Fort Mandan had been destroyed by an accidental fire, but 
they were most cordially received by the Indians. They gave Le Borgne full 
recognition on his reporting that he had not received the presents sent him by 
Cherry on the Bush, and presented him with a new lot befitting his station. They, 
also, gave him the swivel gun which had been used to salute or "talk," as they 
called it, to all the tribes with whom they had dealings on their trip. This gift 
was received by Le Borgne with great satisfaction, and carried to his headquar- 
ters with much ceremony. 

Independent British traders established a post at the mouth of the James 
River in 1804, after the expedition had passed that point and when Lewis and 
Clark returned in 1806, it was in charge of James Aird, representing Robert 



72 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Dickson, then operating on the headwaters of the Mississippi and on the Minne- 
sota rivers. 

Hastening to St. Louis the explorers gave by their arrival the first informa- 
tion relative to them which had been received in the states since they left the 
Mandan villages in April, 1805. 

Charbonneau not wishing to return to the states, remained at the Indian 
villages. Rene Jessaume was employed as an interpreter, and accompanied the 
Mandan Chief Shahaka to Washington with Captains Lewis and Clark. 

It was the middle of February, 1807, before they reached the national capital 
and on March 3, 1807, Captain Lewis was appointed governor of Louisiana 
Territory. He died October 11, 1809, at the age of thirty-four years, while in 
that position. His death was attributed to suicide, but there is reason to believe 
that he was murdered and robbed at the inn where he was stopping on his way to 
Washington in connection with the adjustment of his accounts. The owner of 
the inn where he died was tried for his murder but the evidence was not suf- 
ficient to convict. The body of Governor Lewis, when found, had but 25 cents 
in money on it, and the inn keeper after his acquittal, displayed considerable 
money which he had suddenly acquired. It is not probable that Governor Lewis 
would have taken an official trip without money for the payment of his bills. His 
body was buried within the limits of the State of Tennessee near the spot where 
he was shot, and a monument was erected by the state to commemorate his life 
and work. 

March 12, 1807, Captain Clark was appointed by President Jefiferson briga- 
dier-general of the militia of the Territory of Louisiana, and agent of the United 
States for Indian affairs in that department. 

He was reappointed by President James Madison, February 11, 181 1. Louis- 
iana having been admitted as a state April 30, 1812, and the Territory of 
Missouri having been created, he was appointed governor of that territory by 
President Madison, July i, 1813. He was reappointed by President James Mon- 
roe, January 21, 1817. On the admission of Missouri as a state, January 24, 
1820, he became a candidate for governor but was defeated by Alexander McNair. 

In May, 1822, President Monroe appointed him U. S. Superintendent of 
Indian Affairs, and in October, 1824, he was appointed surveyor general of the 
states of IHinois and Missouri. In 1825, he negotiated several treaties with the 
Indians, and had an advisory influence on the treaties made that year with his 
old friends, the Mandans, Gros Ventres (Hidatsas) and the Arikaras by Gen. 
Henry Atkinson and Maj. Benjamin O'Fallon, U. S. Indian agent. General 
Clark died September i, 1838, in his sixty-ninth year. 

TOUSSAINT CHARBONNEAU AND THE IHRD-WOMAN 

"And the pleasant water-courses, 
You could trace them through the valley, 
By the rushes in the spring-time, 
By the alders in the summer, 
By the white fog in the autumn, 
By the black line in the winter, 
And beside them dwelt the singer." 

— Henry IV. Longfelloiv. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 73 

Toussaint Charbonneau's Indian wife sang merrily as a bird, and was known 
as the "Bird-Woman." By birth a Shoshone of Wyoming, and daughter of a 
chief, she was captured at eleven years of age from the Snake Tribe of Shoshones 
by the Missouri River Indians, in one of their battles with her tribe, and had 
been sold to Charbonneau, who lived with the Gros Ventres at the Mandan 
villages. She was reared by the Gros Ventres, wearing their costume, and it 
was they who named her "Tsa-ka-ka-wea-sh," which in the Indian language 
means, according to Prof. Orin Grant Libby, of the North Dakota Historical 
Society, Bird- Woman. As written in Gros Ventres, "Tsa-ka-wa" signifies bird, 
"wea," woman ; "sh," the. It was said she was uncommonly comely. 

Before being taken from her native tribe, she had traveled over much of 
the country, east and west of the Rocky Mountains, and thus was able to furnish 
valuable information relative thereto. Because of her belief in, and devotion to 
her husband, she had confidence in the white men who were making their way 
to the land of her birth, and with much earnestness urged that her presence 
in the camp with her child, would be a means of protection to them, and her 
ability to talk with the mountain Indians a real help. 

So far as known, she was the first Indian convert to the Christian religion, 
west of the Missouri River, and the first pioneer mother to cross the Rocky 
Mountains and carry her bal)e into the Oregon country. While she crooned to 
her chubby brown baby during the long winter, a new light would come to her 
eyes at the thought of her far away home. 

On the way she made and mended the moccasins of the explorers, taught 
them the mountain Indian methods of hunting bear, told them how to make 
carriages for transporting the boats around Great Falls, Mont., showed them 
how to find artichokes stored by the gophers, and warned them against the waters 
they must not drink. She found eggs of the wild fowl and berries, and made 
ointment to cure sores and insect bites, and when her husband no longer knew 
the country, she became the guide. She was the only woman to accompany the 
expedition, and was guide, interpreter and protector. She protected the party 
when they were threatened by hostile Indians, secured for them food and horses, 
saved their journals and valuable papers at the risk of her life, when their boat 
capsized, and was the only one of the party who received no pecuniary reward 
for her services. 

Captain Clark thus describes her characteristics : 

"She was very observant. She had a good memory, remembering localities 
not seen since her childhood. In trouble she was full of resource, plucky and 
determined. With her helpless infant she rode with the men, guiding us unerr- 
ingly through mountain fastnesses and lonely passes. Intelligent, cheerful, re- 
sourceful, tireless, faithful, she inspired us all." 

Thus it is always with the good woman, encouraging man to dare and to do. 
At his side at birth, in sickness and in death, helping and encouraging in hours 
of distress and peril — "first at the cross and last at the tomb." 

The influence of the Bird- Woman on her tribe gave a wonderful impetus to 
the uplifting of the Shoshones, from the day she greeted her brother, Camehawait, 
a chief at the head of the Snake Indians, who visited the camp of Lewis and 
Gark on the plains of Montana. Sakakawea was the true guide who remained 
with them to the end. 



74 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

She had recognized the Indians as they approached, as being of her tribe; 
among them an Indian woman who had been taken prisoner at the same battle 
in which she had been captured, but escaped. Her brother did not become known 
to her until she began to interpret. Then her joy knew no bounds. Though 
much agitated, the Bird-Woman concluded her work of interpreting the council 
between her brother and Lewis and Clark, and then learned, that of her family 
only two brothers and her sister's child survived; the others having been killed 
in war or had died from other causes. She then and there adopted her sister's 
orphan child (Bazil) and took him with her to the Pacific Coast. 

Returning with Lewis and Clark to the Mandan villages, she remained in 
that country until after the smallpox scourge of 1837. Subsequently she returned 
to her own tribe, then located in the Wind River country, and there lived until her 
death, the night of April 8-9, 1884, at the Shoshone Mission, Wind River, Wyo., 
in the home of her adopted son, Bazil. She was then upwards of one hundred 
years old, blind and deaf. The obsequies were conducted by the Rev. John 
Roberts, D. D., who had known her many years, and who kindly furnished for 
this history the facts here stated in relation to her death. They are corroborated 
by A. D. Lane of Lander, Wyo., who was at her house a few hours after her 
demise, also by Harry Brownson, an old-time resident of Bismarck, afterward 
an employee of the traders' store at Shoshone agency, and otiiers personally known 
to the author, who knew her, and that her name, as known to the Shoshones, 
was "Sacajawea," meaning "to launch or push off the boat." 

Her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, was the interpreter at the time of the 
treaty of Gen. Henry Atkinson with the Mandans and Gros Ventres at the Man- 
dan villages on the Missouri in 1825. He spent the winter with Maximilian at 
Fort Clark. 1833-34, was with him at the battle of Fort McKenzie, and, in 1838, 
was met by Charles Larpenteur when he went down the river to go east on a 
visit. Several of the Bird-Woman's descendants are now living on the Shoshone 
reservation, and a photograph of her great-granddaughter in Indian costume, 
taken specially for it, forms one of the illustrations of this history. 

Her son, Baptiste, the baby, born in North Dakota, who was carried by his 
mother across the continent and return, was educated by Gen. William Clark 
at St. Louis, where young Baptiste Charbonneau was located as late as 1820. He 
was an interpreter and guide with Capt. Benjamin L. E. Bonneville in 1832-35, 
is mentioned in the jotirnals of Lieut. John Charles Fremont at Fort Bridger 
in 1842, and that year was with Sir William Drummond Stewart on a buffalo 
hunt in Wyoming. 

Tier adopted son, known as "Old Bazil," was prominent in tribal affairs on 
the Shoshone reservation. 

Chief Washakie, of Wyoming, who recently "passed to the other shore" at 
the age of about one hundred years, knew Sacajawea, and held her in tender 
esteem. 

There is a monument to her memory near Fort Washakie, at the Shoshone 
Mission. Wind River, Wyo., now LInited States Indian cemetery, erected 
by the State of Wyoming. 

Her statue in the park at Portland, Ore., erected through the efforts of 
Mrs. Eva Emery Dye and others, at the time of the Portland International Expo- 
sition, a fine production worthy of the object, to perpetuate her memory, is, also. 




SAKAKAWEA 

Tlie Slioslione Indian Biid-W'onian 

Wlio in 1805 guided the 

Lewis and Claris Expedition 

from tlie 

Missouri River to the Yellowstone. 

Erected by tlie 

Federated Club Women and School Children of 

North Dakota. 

Presented to the State, October. 1910 

(Statue at Bismarck) 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 75 

in the name of "Sacajawea" the spelling adopted by the Wyoming State Historical 
Society. 

In February, 1906, a movement was inaugurated by Mrs. Beulah M. Amidon, 
of Fargo, N. D., to raise funds for a monument to the Bird-Woman to be erected 
at the state capital. The bronze statue at Bismarck, designed by Crunelle, is of 
heroic size, twelve feet in height, representing an Indian woman wrapped in a 
blanket, with a pappoose strapped upon her back. 

The Legislature of North Dakota assumed the expense of the granite pedestal, 
but the statue was paid for by a fund contributed by the Federation of Women's 
Clubs and the school children of the state. 

On the bronze tablet are the words : 

Sakakawea 

The Shoshone Indian Bird- Woman 

Who in 1805 guided the 

Lewis and Clark expedition 

from the 

Missouri River to the Yellowstone. 

Erected by the 

Federated Club women and school children of 

North Dakota 

Presented to the state, October, 1910. 

The artist sketched the figure and costume at the Indian reservation at Elbow 
Woods, N. D., and won the approbation of Spotted Weasel and James Holding 
Eagle, who inspected and criticised it in its early stages. 

It stands on the east side of the capitol grounds on a large block of rough 
granite, facing the west, the baby looking over her right shoulder. One foot 
is in advance of the other as if she were walking. The dedication took place 
October 13, 1910, the ceremony of unveiling being performed by Miss Beulah 
Amidon, of Fargo, N. D. The invocation was by Bishop Vincent Wehrle of the 
Bismarck diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, and was followed by an address 
by Mrs. Hattie M. Davis, superintendent of schools of Cass County, who originated 
the idea of having the members of the women's clubs and the children of the state 
raise the money to pay for the statue. The presentation speech was made by 
Mrs. N. C. Young, president of the State Federation of Women's Clubs, Judge 
Burleigh F. Spalding of the Supreme Court accepting on behalf of the state. 
Frank L. McVey, president of the state university, made the principal address. 

It was fitting that this remarkable woman, distinguished alike for intelligence, 
bravery and capability (and her child) should be honored by the women and 
children of North Dakota, and it matters little whether the name meaning "Bird- 
Woman" in Gros Ventre or "The launch of the boat" in Shoshone is accepted; 
that she was one and the same there can be no doubt. 

THE MISSOURI FUR COMP.\NY 

Although borne on the rolls of the regular army until February 27, 1807, 
Captain Clark tendered his resignation immediately after his return from the 
Pacific coast, and became interested in the organization of a f~ompany which was 



76 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

incorporated as the St. Louis Fur Company, and after many vicissitudes finally 
reorganized as the Missouri Fur Company, the members of the original organiza- 
tion being Benjamin Wilkinson, Pierre Choteau, Sr., Manuel Lisa, Auguste Cho- 
teau, Jr., Reuben Lewis, William Clark, Sylvester Labadie, Pierre Menard, 
William Morrison, Andrew Henry and Dennis Fitzhugh. William Clark, then 
known as Gen. William Clark, was agent of the company at St. Louis. 

THE RETURN OF THE MANDAN CHIEF 

In 1807, with Pierre Choteau in command of a trading party numbering 
seventy-two men, an attempt was made to return the Mandan Chief Shahaka, 
who had accompanied Lewis and Clark on their return to Washington, together 
with his wife and child, and the wife and child of his interpreter Rene Jessaume. 
Lewis and Clark had agreed on behalf of the United States to guarantee the 
safe return of the party to the Mandan villages. 

The chief was under the escort of Ensign Nathaniel Prior, who had been a 
sergeant with the Lewis and Clark Expedition. 

When they reached the Arikara villages they were attacked by these Indians 
on account of the Mandan chief, but Choteau had anticipated treachery, and was 
prepared for it. After an hour's fighting he was able to withdraw with a loss 
of three killed and seven wounded, one mortally. Three of Prior's party were 
wounded, including the interpreter of the chief. The Indians followed the party, 
and continued the attack from along shore as they proceeded dowii the river, 
until the Choteau party singled out a chief whom they recognized and shot him, 
when the Indians retired. 

The Indians had met with heavy loss, but to what extent was never known. 
Shahaka having returned in safety to St. Louis, awaited an escort, and the first 
contract made by the reorganized St. Louis Fur Company, thereafter to be known 
as the Missouri Fur Company, was for the return of the Mandan chief to his 
tribe. In the contract the Missouri Fur Company agreed to engage 125 men, 
of whom 40 must be Americans and expert riflemen, for the purpose of escort. 
They were to receive $7,000 for the Indian's safe return. The party consisting 
of 150 men left St. Louis in the spring of 1809, Pierre Choteau in command, 
arriving at the Mandan villages September 24, 1809, the chief laden with presents. 
He had been entertained by President Jefferson at his country seat of Monticello 
and had been honored and feted from the time he reached St. Louis until his 
return, but his account of his experiences not being believed, he fell into disre- 
pute, and was finally killed by the Sioux in one of the attacks by that tribe on the 
Mandan villages. 

In 1807 Manuel Lisa, the first and most noted upper Missouri River Indian 
trader, passed through the Arikara villages, where he had a trading post, visiting 
them, in detail, with entire safety, immediately preceding the attack of that year 
upon Pierre Choteau's party. 

(The several maps illustrating the early explorations, the Louisiana Purchase, and the 
extension of boundaries of the United States, were prepared for the General Land Office, 
Washington, D. C, and are used by courtesy of that office.) 




\JKG1MA GUAM' 

Granddaughter of Sakaka- 
wea. Photo by A. P. Porter of 
Lander, Wyoming, for the 
Early History of North Dakota. 




SIOUX WOMEN DANCING— FASHIONS OF 1912 
(Mandan Fair, 1912) 



CHAPTER VI 
"WHEN WILD IN WOODS THE NOBLE SAVAGE RAN" 

THE EXPEDITION OF LIEUT. Z. M. PIKE TREATY WITH THE SIOUX ON THE UPPER 

MISSISSIPPI — THE CHIPPEWAS SMOKE THE PIPE OF WABASHA SUBSTITUTING 

THE AMERICAN FOR BRITISH FLAGS AND MEDALS GAME ^THE WINTER CANTON- 
MENT HOSPITALITY OF THE TRADERS ALEXANDER HENRY's VISIT TO THE 

MANDAN VILLAGES IDEAL INDIAN HOMES— SOCIAL LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 

"I am as free as nature first made man, 
Ere the base laws of servitude began, 
When wild in woods the noble savage ran." 

— Dryden's Conquest of Granada. 

CONDITIONS ON THE FRONTIER IN 1805 

In 1805 Spain still held dominion over the country west of the Missouri River, 
although she had already ceded her possessions to France, and from France they 
had passed to the United States, which had entered upon the exploration of the 
country. Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had spent a winter in 
what is now North Dakota, at Fort Mandan. They had traced the Missouri 
to its source, locating the Cannonball, Heart, Knife, White Earth and Yellow- 
stone rivers, and had given the world the first reliable information relative to 
the plains of Dakota, then popularly supposed to be in the heart of the great 
American desert. They reported a land abounding in game of all kinds, peopled 
by a brave and intelligent native population. 

Pembina was already on the maps of the period, together with the Pembina, 
Park, Turtle, Goose, Sheyenne and James rivers. Devils Lake and Lake Traverse. 
The Minnesota River was then known as St. Peter's and at its mouth was located 
Fort St. Anthony. There was no St. Paul and Minneapolis in Minnesota, and in 
California no San Francisco. Chicago in Illinois, and St. Louis, then in Louisiana 
Territory, were frontier villages of little importance. There was no occupation 
of the great West for development, save the lead mines near Dubuque, no wagon 
roads, aside from trails, and no means of communication, excepting by canoe 
and pony. There had been some early exploration by the French and by the 
Spanish, but imtil the expedition of Lewis and Clark, but little was known of 
this vast country, towards which the center of population of the United States 
is rapidly shifting. 

77 



78 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

pike's expedition 

The object of Pike's expedition was to select sites for military posts on the 
Mississippi River; to survey its waters to the source of that stream; to acquaint 
the traders with the change of ownership of the country and investigate their 
alleged unlawful conduct in the sale of goods without the payment of duties 
imposed, and to endeavor to bring about peace between the Sioux and the Chip- 
pewas and enlist their friendship on behalf of the United States. The roster of 
Lieutenant Pike's party was as follows : 

First Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike, First Regiment U. S. Infantry, command- 
ing; Sergeant Henry Kennerman; Corporals Samuel Bradley and William E. 
Meek ; Privates John Boley, Peter Branden, John Brown, Jacob Carter, Thomas 
Daugherty, William Gordon, Solomon Huddleston, Jeremiah Jackson, Hugh 
Menaugh, Theodore Miller, John Montgomery, David Owings, Alexander Ray, 
Patrick Smith, John Sparks, Freegift Stoule and David Whelpley, in all one 
officer, one sergeant, two corporals and seventeen men. His interpreters were 
Joseph Renville and Pierre Rosseau. 

They left camp, near St. Louis, August 5, 1805 ; their means of transporta- 
tion being one keel-boat seventy feet long. On their arrival at Prairie du Chien 
September 4th, where they spent several days, they were saluted by the Indians 
with a volley of musketry, and it is claimed that some of the Indians who were 
under the influence of liquor, tried to see how close they could shoot without 
hitting the boat. Lieutenant Pike informed them of the object of his expedition, 
especially as to the matter of peace with the Chippewas. 

On September 23, 1805, he negotiated a treaty with the Sioux — represented 
by Little Crow (grandfather of Little Crow, leader in the Minnesota massacre 
in 1862), and Way Ago Enogee — for a tract of land nine miles square at the 
mouth of the River St. Croix, also a tract of land extending from below the 
confluence of the Mississippi and St. Peter's rivers up the Mississippi to include 
the Falls of St. Anthony, embracing nine miles on each side of the river, for the 
sum of $2,000. Congress confirmed this treaty April 16, 1808, but there is no 
record that it was proclaimed by the President. It is scarcely necessary to add 
that it embraced the land on which Fort Snelling and the cities of St. Paul and 
Minneapolis now stand. 

When Lieutenant Pike arrived at the headwaters of the Mississippi, he was 
treated with great cordiality and courtesy by the traders and their employees. 
Coming one night to a sugar camp he was given his choice of beaver, swan, 
elk or deer for supper, and though sugar and flour were worth 50 cents per 
pound, and salt $1, there was no stint in the supply. 

Among the traders he met were Joseph Rolette and associates at Prairie du 
Chien, Murdoch Cameron at Lake Pepin, Jean Baptiste Faribault and Joseph 
Renville on the Minnesota, Robert Dickson on the Mississippi and Ciithbert 
Graiit and Hugh McGillis in the Red Lake country. 

The traders were naturally pro-British and were controlled by British influ- 
ences. Cuthbert Grant was still flying the British flag, but explained to Lieutenant 
Pike that it was owned by an Indian and he was not responsible for it. 

Flatmouth, one of the Red Lake band, and Tahmahah, a .Sioux, became great 
friends of Lieutenant Pike. Flatmouth rendered him great service, and Tahma- 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 79 

hah adopted him as a brother, and entered the service of the United States as a 
dispatch bearer, and it was his proud boast that he was the only Sioux who was 
an American. 

Joseph Rolette guided the British forces at the time of their capture of Prairie 
du Chien. Tahniahah was a prisoner of war there. When the British evacuated 
the fort they hoisted an American flag and fired the fort. Tahmahah, at the 
risk of his life, saved the flag and was awarded a medal of honor. 

Zachary Taylor, then major Twenty-sixth Infantry, U. S. A., afterwards 
President of the United States, was defeated by the Indians in his efforts to 
punish them for the Prairie du Qiien affair. He was subsequently stationed at 
Fort Snelling. 

ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI 

On the way up the Mississippi River Lieutenant Pike found much game. 
There were many herds of deer and antelope and elk were so numerous that 
Chief Thomas killed forty in one day. They occasionally killed a bear, beaver 
were abundaiit and the buffalo plentiful later in the season. 

At the mouth of the Crow Wing River they found evidence of a recent and 
severe battle between the Sioux and Chippewas, in which the latter were vic- 
torious. 

October i6, 1S05, Lieutenant Pike went into winter cjuarters, erecting a 
stockade at the mouth of Swan River, about four miles from the present Village 
of Little Falls, Minn. The structure was thirty-six feet square, with blockhouses 
on the northwest and southeast corners. 

Here Lieutenant Pike left a sergeant and part of his command, and pushed 
on for the headwaters of the Mississippi with the remainder, extending his 
explorations as far as Cass Lake. January 8, 1806, Lieutenant Pike visited the 
trading post of Cuthbert Grant at Sandy Lake, where there was a large stockade 
built in 1796, by the North- West Company. 

Lieutenant Pike found that the Indians of this region had great respect for 
the Americans. They did not consider them like either Frenchmen or English- 
men, but as white Indians, and understood that they were fierce in battle and 
ready at all times to defend their rights. The explorer came upon one party of 
Indians who were insolent and threatening in their attitude until informed that 
they were Americans, when their manner immediately changed, and they extended 
to them every possible courtesy. 

The prices at Grant's post for some of the staple articles were as follows: 
Wild oats, $1.50 per bushel; flour, 50 cents per pound; salt, $1 per pound; pork. 
80 cents per pound ; sugar, 50 cents per pound ; tea, $4 per pound. 

Lieutenant Pike visited Hugh McGillis, who had a trading post at Leech 
Lake, and the next day Mr. Anderson, at the trading house of Robert Dickson, 
on the west side of the lake. 

To these visits Alexander Henry has alluded in his notes of the same date. 
Robert Dickson cast his fortunes with the British during the war of 1812, but 
after the war. returned to Lake Traverse, N. D., where he was the agent for Lord 
Selkirk. He had a Sioux wife and four sons 



80 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

February 12th Lieutenant Pike went on to Cass Lake, and on the i8th left 
Leech Lake for the stockade. On the 15th the Chippewas were in council with 
Lieutenant Pike on the subject of peace with the Sioux. Wabasha was a leading 
representative of the Sioux, and having agreed with Lieutenant Pike to make 
terms of peace with the Chippewas, sent his pipe by the hand of Lieutenant Pike 
to be used as his representative in the peace negotiations. The British traders 
had given the Indian chiefs medals and British flags and many of the chiefs 
were indebted to them for their offices. Lieutenant Pike was instructed to take 
up these medals and flags wherever it was possible to do so, and substitute the 
American flag and medals, believing that the eff'ect upon the Indians would be 
salutary. They all smoked Wabasha's pipe and most of the chiefs gave up their 
British flags and medals and received American flags and medals in return. 

Lieutenant Pike returned to the stockade March 5th, and on April 7th left 
for St. Anthony Falls, where they arrived April nth. He claimed that his 
boats were the first to pass up the Mississippi above the Falls of St. Anthony. 
Having been promoted brigadier-general he was present at the battle of York, 
in upper Canada, April 27, 1813, and was killed by an explosion of the maga- 
zine at the fort after its surrender. 

FORT ST. ANTHONY 

The fort built at the mouth of the Minnesota River was at first called Fort 
St. Anthony, but in 1824, when Col. Winfield Scott visited the post he suggested 
that St. Anthony, the name of a saint of the Prince of Peace, was not a good 
name for the fort ; that the name was foreign to all of our associations, besides 
being geographically incorrect. The name was accordingly changed to Fort 
Snelling and the fort became the nucleus around which the first settlements were 
made in the great Northwest, and from which they were extended to the Dakotas 
and still westward. 

THE MANDANS 

The Mandans are first mentioned in history by Sieur de la Verendrye, who 
visited them in 1738. In 1750 they were living in nine villages, near the mouth 
of the Heart River. Two of these on the east side of the river, almost extermi- 
nated by disease and by war with the Sioux, consolidated, and moved up to near 
the mouth of Knife River, where they were later joned by the other villages. 
Here they were found by Lewis and Clark. They were then estimated at 1.250, 
and in 1837 their number was placed at 1,600. In that year they were stricken 
with smallpox, but thirty lodges, or about one hundred and twenty-five people, 
only remaining, and forsaking their villages after the scourge, they finally settled 
down at Fort Berthold in 1845. Their number in 1905 was 249. 

A VISIT TO THE MANDAN VILLAGES 

July 7, 1806. Alexander Henry left Pembina for the Mandan villages, accom- 
panied by Joseph Ducharme and Toussaint Vaudry, interpreter. The roads were 
heavv from recent rains and the horses often sunk to above their knees in mud 




l-'UKT (,J.A1;K, UN THE JIIISSOURI, FEBRUAKY, 1834 

From a ijainting by diaries Bodmer from "Travels to the Interior of North America in 

1832-3-4," bv Maximilian, Prince of Wied, 1843. 




FORT UNJUN, OX THE MISSOURI 

From a painting by Charles Bodmer from "Travels to the Interior of North America in 

1832-3-4," by Maximilian, Prince of Wied, 1843. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 81 

and water. At night the mosquitoes were intolerable, the horses breaking away 
from their fetters on several occasions. July nth they reached old Fort de 
Tremble, on the Assiniboine River, where in 1781 the Crees and Assiniboines 
and other Indians of that region undertook to inaugurate a massacre of the 
whites then in the Indian country. Three men were killed at the fort. The 
Indian loss was fifteen killed, and fifteen more died of wounds. The fort was 
then abandoned. July nth Henry reached a North-West trading post on the 
Mouse River (at Brandon). The Hudson's Bay and X. Y. companies also had 
trading posts there at that time. F. A. Larocque was in charge of the North- 
West Company post. Charles Chaboillez, Jr., Allen McDonald and Hugh 
McCracken were also there, and they accompanied Mr. Henry to the Mandan 
villages. 

After crossing the Mouse River they kept a lookout for the Sioux. Mr. 
Henry writes : "We must be on our guard against the Sioux, the natural ene- 
mies of all tribes in these parts. They perpetually wander about in search of 
straggling Mandans or Gros Ventres (Hidatsas) and sometimes cross the River 
la Souris in hope of falling in with Assiniboines and Crees, who frequently hunt 
along this river." 

July 19th they reached the Mandan villages. The women were hoeing com 
some distance from their village with well armed Indians on the lookout for fear 
of the Sioux. 

Mr. Henry speaks of the large quantity of corn, beans, squashes, tobacco 
and sunflowers raised by these Indians, and of their manner of caching 
(secreting) their produce where it would not be likely to be disturbed by their 
enemies in case of an attack. 

Mr. Henry's party met Jean Baptiste Lafrance with a small stock of goods, 
which he brought from the Brandon House for the purpose of trade at the 
Mandan villages. As soon as Black Cat, their Indian host, learned who Mr. 
Henry was, he produced the flag given him by Lewis and Clark, October 29, 
1804, and kept that flying as long as they remained. 

Mr. Henry relates that he saw the remains of an excellent large corn mill 
which Lewis and Clark had given the Indians. They had broken it and used the 
iron to barb their arrows ; the largest piece, which they could not work into any 
weapon, was used to break marrow bones of the animals killed in hunting. 

Henry's party crossed the Missouri in boats, made of willows and bufifalo 
skins, called bull-boats. 

Six Arikaras came into the village while Mr. Henry was there to treat for 
peace. Some of their people had accompanied a Sioux war party the fall before 
and killed five Mandans. The Mandans had made a return visit, killing two 
Arikaras and had sent them word that they intended to exterminate the whole 
tribe. These emissaries had accordingly come up to make peace. The Hidatsa 
were called into council, about thirty arriving on horse back at full speed. The 
Arikaras were directed to return at once to their village and tell their chief, 
Red Tail, that if he really desired peace he must come in person and then they 
would settle matters ; and if he did not come they would find him as soon as 
their corn was gathered, and show him what the Hidatsa and Mandans could 
do when exasperated by Arikara treachery. 

About 100 Mandans came in with their horses loaded with meat from a 

Vol. I— 6 



82 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

day's hunt for buffalo. It was the custom of the Mandans to hunt in large bodies 
and to completely surround one herd and kill all of the animals so as not to 
alarm the other herds. 

When the hunting party returned they would divide with the neighbors, 
where there was no one to hunt for them, before resting themselves, and some- 
times all was given away and others in turn divided with the generous givers. 

THE MANDAN CIRCULAR HUTS 

The circular hut where Henry lodged, measured ninety feet from the front 
door to the opposite side. The whole space was first dug out to a depth of about 
ij^ feet below the surface. In the center was a fire place, about five feet square, 
dug out about two feet below the surface. The lower part of the hut was con- 
structed by erecting strong posts about six feet out of the ground, set at equal 
distances from each other. Upon these were laid logs as large as the posts to 
form the circle. On the outside were placed pieces of split wood, seven feet long, 
in a slanting position, one end resting on the ground and the other leaning against 
the cross logs. Upon these beams rested rafters the thickness of a man's leg. 
twelve to fifteen feet long, slanting enough to shed water, and laid so close that 
they touched each other. Four large posts in the center of the lodge supported 
four square beams on which the upper end of the rafters were laid. At the top 
there was an opening about four feet square which served for chimney and win- 
dow. There was no other opening to admit light, and when it rained even this 
opening was closed. The whole roof was well thatched with willows, laid on 
to a thickness of six inches or more, fastened together in a very compact manner 
and well secured to the rafters. Over the whole was spread about a foot of 
earth. Around the wall to the height of three feet or more, earth was laid to 
the thickness of about three feet, for security in case of attack and for warmth 
in winter. 

The door was 5 feet broad and 6 high, made of raw buffalo hides, stretched 
on a frame and suspended from one of the beams which formed the circle. Every 
night the door was barricaded with a long piece of timber supported by two stout 
posts on the inside of the hut, one on each side of the door. A covered porch, 
7 feet wide and 10 feet long, extended from the door. 

At the left of the entrance was a triangular apartment, fronting the fire, con- 
structed of square timbers, twelve feet high, calked tight to keep out the draft 
from the door. On the right of the door was an open space to hold fire-wood in 
winter. Between the partitions and the fire was about five feet, occupied by the 
master of the hut during the day, seated on a mat of willows, 10 feet long and 4 
feet broad, raised from the floor and covered with skins, forming a sofa or couch. 
Here he sat all day and sometimes through the night, smoking and talking with 
friends. At the left of this apartment were the beds, at the other end of the 
hut was the "medicine" stage, containing everything the Indian valued most. Here 
or on the wall near, he kept his arms and ammunition. Next to this was the 
mortar and pestle for grinding grain. The remainder of the space was vacant. 
This was a typical Mandan hut, seldom occupied by more than one family. 

July 21 st in visiting the upper village they passed extensive fields of corn, 
beans, squashes and sunflowers : the women and children were employed in hoeing 




DOG SLEDGES OF THE MAl^DAN INDIANS 

From a painting by Cliarles Bodmer from "Travels to the Interior of North America in 

1S33-3-4," by Maximilian, Prince of Wied, 1843. 




INTERIOR OF THE HUT OF A MANDAN CHIEF 

From a painting by Charles Bodmer from "Travels to the Interior of North America in 

1833-3-4," by Maximilian, Prince of Wied, 1843. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 83 

ami clearing their plantations. On the road there were natives passing and re- 
passing, afoot or on horseback, the whole view presenting the appearance of a 
country inhabited by civilized people. At the fourth village the inhabitants fol- 
lowed them in crowds and made fun of them. Here they found Charles McKen- 
zie, whom Lewis and Clark met at the Mandan villages, and James Caldwell, 
who had a temporary trading post there in the interest of the North-West 
Company. Le Borgne was the chief of this village. He was absent at the Chey- 
enne villages in connection with a proposed treaty of peace, and Henrj' and party 
accompanied the representatives of the Mandan village tribes to the place of meet- 
ing — a point west of Sugar Loaf Butte, southwest of Bismarck, on the west side 
of the Missouri. The meeting would have resulted in war had not the women 
and children accompanied the warriors from the Mandan villages. As a peace 
treaty it was a failure. 

In preparing for the trip to the treaty grounds, which was to be somewhat in 
the nature of a fair, where every one showed his best products and his best 
clothes, Henry states he was surprised to see what a store of treasures the people 
of the Mandan villages had on hand ; he was confident they had provisions enough 
cached to last them at least twelve months. 

One of the pastimes of the Mandans was running long foot races in order 
to be prepared to take care of themselves if dismounted in battle. The race was 
at least six miles. They made it entirely naked, and, on their return, covered with 
perspiration and dust, they would plunge into the Missouri. They also indidged 
in horse racing, during which they would carry on their warlike maneuvers on 
horseback, feigning their difTerent attacks upon the enemy, giving their strokes 
of the battle axe and thrusts of the spear. 

Mr. Henry speaks of the custom of the Indians to bathe in the river morning 
and evening, without regard to sex, their neighbors or visiting strangers, and other 
customs no longer practiced among the tribes since the advent of religious 
instruction. 

AN OLD BATTLEFIELD 

Henrv visited the battle ground where about 1790, some 600 lodges of the 
Sioux attacked and attempted to subdue the Hidatsas. They had made peace 
with the Souliers and Mandans and, therefore, pitched their tents between the 
Hidatsas and Knife River, thinking they wovild be able to cut off their water sup- 
ply. Here they remained fifteen days, keeping guard, but the Hidatsas, mounting 
their best horses, would reach the Missouri in spite of the Sioux (though several 
were killed), and thus secured an abundance of water. The Sioux compelled 
the Mandans to supply them with food, during the siege which was raised after 
several skirmishes, leaving 300 dead on the field of battle. 

Another account states that the Yanktons and Tetons were fiercely engaged 
with the Hidatsa and the battle was first going in favor of one and then the 
other, when reinforcements of Hidatsa arrived, accompanied by a large party of 
Crows. Observing with what fury the battle was raging at the front, they 
determined to surround the enemy by turning to the left, without being seen, as 
the country permitted this movement and they rode up a deep valley so far away 
as not to be in sight of the enemy. Keeping on the south side of these rising 



84 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

grounds, they went full speed into the valley which led down to the rear of the 
enemy. There they fell in with a great number of women who had accompanied 
their husbands in full expectation of destroying and plundering the Mandan vil- 
lages. Many of these were killed and others taken prisoners. The party then 
appeared on rising ground in the rear of the Sioux and attacked with fury, dealing 
death and destruction on every hand. The Sioux, overpowered by numbers and 
exhausted by fatigue, were obliged to give way, but their retreat was cut off and 
they were so hard pressed that they were obliged to throw themselves into the 
Missouri and attempt to swim across. RTany were killed in the river and but few 
survived to return to their country. The villages were surrounded by a stockade, 
mainly built of driftwood, at the time of Henry's visit. 

July 28th, Henry left the Mandan villages, accompanied by Mr. Charles Mc- 
Kenzie and James Caldwell. The party consisted of ten men with twenty-five 
horses. July 30th, they found the plains in many places covered with water. 
August 3d, they passed the Dog Den, and the next day eight of their horses broke 
their tethers, being frightened by a herd of buffalo. The buffalo were so numerous 
that they had to build a barricade around the camp to prevent being run over. It 
was with the greatest difficulty that they were able to cross the Mouse River, the 
banks where they reached it being low and miry and the river overflowed. At 
the head of the Turtle Mountains they found several recent camps of the Assini- 
boines. The Mouse River region was said to be infested with horse thieves at this 
time, and that probably accounts for the fact that the lost horses, although hobbled, 
were not recovered. 

The trip was for the purpose of purchasing horses and was a failure, and 
resulted in the North-West Company withdrawing from the Mandan trade. 

THE ARIKARAS 

In 1770, French traders established relations with the Arikaras (sometimes 
mentioned as Rees, Ricarees or Aricarees) then occupying their villages below the 
Cheyenne River, in what is now South Dakota. There were then ten powerful 
villages, but they were reduced by war and disease to three, when found by 
Lewis and Clark. Their number was then estimated at 600 warriors, or about 
2,100 people. In 1888 they were reduced to 500, and the census of 1905 placed 
their number at 380. 

THE IlIDATSA 

The Hidatsa or Gros Ventres, of the Missouri, or Minetarees, as they were " 
called by Lewis and Clark, were first known to the whites when living in the 
vicinity of Knife River, in North Dakota. They occupied three villages near the 
Knife River, and when visited by Lewis and Clark, numbered 600 warriors, or 
about 2,100 people. They learned agriculture of the Mandans, and when the 
trading post was established at old Fort Berthold, they moved up to that point. 
Reduced by war and disease, the population in 1905 was only 471. 

Since the removal of these allied tribes to Fort Berthold, they have been 
known as the Berthold Indians. 

The census of 1910 shows a slight increase in the number of these Indians 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 85 

among whom are many noble specimens of humanity, who have the commendable 
pride in their ancestry common to all humanity. 

IDEAL INDIAN HOMES 

When first visited by the whites, these Indians were living in ideal Indian 
homes. Their circular earth-covered huts were comfortable in summer and shel- 
tered the old and infirm in winter. Of food and the means of clothing there was 
an abundance. They were strong and fleet, and as the sun "arose from his bed 
in the dark" — to adopt an Indian figure of speech — it gave warmth and gladness, 
and when it "dropped below the light," they slept, with none excepting the Sioux 
to make them afraid. Their women laughed in their hearts, and the light sparkled 
in the eyes of their children, like the sunshine dancing on the waterfall. The 
Great Spirit made their hearts good, and there was no one to tell them lies, until 
the white man went among them, carrying the blighting curse which has always, 
followed, and always will follow the introduction of intoxicating liquor as a 
beverage among an ignorant people. 

The Mandans, Arikaras and Gros Ventres having spent the summer raising 
their crops of corn and vegetables, prepared secure places for caching their sur- 
plus, lest marauding Sioux might capture the camp during their absence. Only 
the old and infirm, and the young and helpless, were left at the summer home, 
the active force retiring to the Bad Lands for the winter. 

This winter exodus usually occurred in October. The Indians having credit 
with the traders were trusted for the supplies of ammunition or other things nec- 
essary for their winter equipment, while some deposited their war bonnets of 
eagle feathers, or other valuables, as a pledge that they would pay when they 
returned from the chase. Many left valuables consisting of drums, rattles, lances, 
not required in the winter camp, in charge of the trader within his fort, feeling 
that they would be safe in case the ever-feared .Sioux should make an attack 
upon tlTeir village during their absence. 

EHiring the winter absence the summer camp was in terror lest the Sioux attack 
them, and great anxiety prevailed in the winter camp, lest their loved and helpless 
be attacked while defenseless. 

The independent traders usually made it a point to accompany the Indians 
to their winter camps, and gather the fruits of trade in the field, leaving the 
established traders to glean whatever might be left. 

During the hours of preparation, the women would patiently await their 
turn to sharpen knives and axes on the grindstones furnished by the trader for 
that purpose, while the young men dressed in their finest trappings, and painted 
in the height of Indian fashion, would ride their gaily caparisoned horses pell-mell 
about the camp, or engage in horse racing or games. The old men organized, and 
the "Soldiers" took charge, and then the duly appointed haranguer announced the 
orders governing every step in the preparation for the move, commencing with 
"Pull down your tepees and get ready to move!" Their lodges were quickly pulled 
down by the women and the poles either tied in bundles for convenience or used 
for the travois. The women did all of the labor; they saddled the ponies, har- 
nessed the horses and dogs to the travois, packed and loaded the goods, and, 
if necessary to cross the Missouri or other stream, paddled the men across in 



86 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

"bull-boats'" ; their horses, fastened by long lariats, made from strips of buffalo 
skins, swimming in the rear. 

The march being taken up, the head of the familj' took the lead, followed by 
his horses, dogs, women and children, household effects, and camp equipage ; the 
very young children and puppies being strapped on the travois. 

No chief was so great that he dared disobey the warriors, or head men of the 
tribe called "Soldiers," who were in absolute command. They directed the march, 
selected the stopping places, lingered at the rear to prevent loitering, and none 
could hunt without permission, or separate in any manner from the column. 

The winter camps were in the Bad Lands, formed by erosion, usually 200 or 
300 feet, below the general level of the prairie. They were cut by numerous 
gullies and ravines, called breaks, giving small valleys, affording shelter, excellent 
winter grazing, and an abundance of timber for fuel and for erecting their tem- 
porary homes. There was also an abundance of game, consisting of deer, 
mountain sheep, bear, beaver, wolves, and as the winter advanced in severity, buf- 
falo came in for shelter. The grasses matured before frost, and when winter 
came they were in the condition of hay, and the animals quickly learned to paw 
away the snow, and feed as contentedly on the sun-cured grasses thus exposed, 
as the stock in the eastern farmer's barnyard at the hay or straw stack, though 
on food of much better quality. 

It was these features which led Theodore Roosevelt in 1881 to become 
a citizen of North Dakota, establishing a cattle ranch at Chimney Butte, near 
Medora, in the very heart of the Bad Lands. 

To guard against storm, or in preparation for surrounding the buffalo, when 
there might be no time or opportunity for grazing, the women stripped bark 
from the young cottonwood trees, or the limbs of the last year's growth, which 
made good food for the Indian ponies. 

The place having been selected for the winter home — which was liable to 
change at any time if conditions did not prove satisfactory — the skin lodges 
were erected, and then the women felled the timber and erected temporary cabins 
covered with poles, rushes, reeds or long grass and earth. The chimneys were 
built of sticks and clay. The buildings stood in a circle opening at the rear into 
an open space, covered in the same manner as the houses, used in common for 
the horses. 

SOCIAL LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS 

• Notwithstanding the manifold duties of the women, they found time to attend 
the meetings of the several societies, or clubs, to which they had become attached. 
Some of these societies, organized much after the plan of the women's clubs of 
the present day, were known as the "White Cow Band," the white buffalo being 
. a sacred animal ; one was the "Goose Band," and still otiiers were distinguished 
by names descriptive of some esteemed game, such as the "Black Tailed Deer," 
etc. Indians having several wives, each belonging to different societies, found 
it rather strenuous sometimes, as it was customary for each to entertain with 
feasting and dancing in turn. Some of their defenseless husbands made that 
an excuse for gambling, but when their losses of the necessaries of life became 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 87 

unbearable, their wives seldom failed to break up the game, and teach their hus- 
bands a much-needed lesson. 

The men spent most of their time hunting, watching the stock, visiting, 
gambling and telling stories, until the bufifalo made their appearance, when all 
was hurry and bustle. 

Thus the seasons would pass, several "surrounds"' of buffalo happening each 
winter, and in the spring they would return to their permanent camp, where 
the women would prepare the ground and plant and harvest the crop; the men, 
as before, devoting their attention to visiting, gambling, hunting and war. 



CHAPTER VII 

GRAFT IN THE INDIAN TRADE 

ETERNAL VIGILANCE THE PRICE OF LIBERTY THE COUNTRY OVERRUN BY INDIAN 

TRADERS THE UNITED STATES AS A FACTOR ORGANIZATION OF THE AMERICAN 

FUR COMPANY THE LORDS OF THE LAKES AND FORESTS FORT WILLIAM THE 

SELKIRK PURCHASE AND COLONY THE SEVEN OAKS MASSACRE — SELKIRK VISITS 

THE RED RIVER COLONY THE CHURCH AND SCHOOLS ESTABLISHED. 

"It is the common fate of the indolent, to see their rights become a prey to the active. 
The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which con- 
dition, if he break, se-^vitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of 
his guilt." — John Phiipot Curran, Speech upon the Right of Election, jygo. 

GRAFT IN THE INDIAN TRADE 

The use of public office for the purpose of gain to the individual is now called 
"graft," and those who prey upon and mislead the people for their own personal 
advantage, are called "grafters," but it is no new thing in the world.- In 1804 
Captain Lewis commenced upon this system then in vogue in Louisiana, under 
Spanish rule. The governor had assumed to himself the exclusive right to dis- 
pose of trading privileges among the Indians, selling licenses for personal gain. 
They were ofifered to the highest bidder, varying in value according to the extent 
of the country they embraced, the Indian nations occupying that country, and 
the period for which they were granted. They yielded all the income to the 
authorities the trade would bear. The traders at this period supplied the Indians 
with arms, ammunition, intoxicating liquors, and, indeed, anything they wished 
to buy, charging them exorbitant prices, and the governor profited by the excess. 

OTHER LINES OF GRAFT 

But graft did not end with Spanish rule, nor with the retirement of the 
British traders. The history of the fur trade, and the development of the West 
is full of instances, and it is well for the people to remember, even yet, that 
"eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." 

Joseph Rolette, an early Pembina trader, was too successful in the estima- 
tion of his rivals, and too popular with the Indians to suit their purposes, and so 
they elected him to the Minnesota Legislature, and by that means got hini out 
of the way for a time at least. 

88 



4 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 89 

Gen. William H. Ashley, who was one of the most successful of the early 
traders, was disposed of by being sent to Congress, and it was charged that at 
the end of his term he was paid a large salary to stay away from the Indian 
country. 

When Indian treaties were made for the alleged benefit of the Indians and 
to promote the interests of trade, the "grafter" was on hand to claim his share 
from both the Indian and the traders. The Minnesota massacre was largely the 
result of his work. 

When the Indian traderships ceased to be attractive, attention was turned to 
the military traderships. It was freely charged at the time of the impeachment 
proceedings against United States Secretary of War William W. Belknap, that 
the Fort Buford, Fort Abraham Lincoln and Fort Rice traderships paid $i,000 
per month each for the influence that controlled the appointments. Lesser sums 
were paid by the smaller posts. It was also charged that the Indian traderships 
contributed to a fund that paid a salary of $5,000 per annum to the one whose 
influence secured the appointment of the trader. 

When the Indian lands were opened to settlement the "grafter" very fre- 
quently claimed, for his influence, 50 per cent of the contract price for surveys. 
When the mail routes were established, and the transportation routes opened, 
he was still there, and when counties and cities were organized, he lingered near, 
and he is sometimes found about legislative halls. 

COUNTRY OVERRUN BY TR.^DERS 

Traders, both Spanish and American, were operating in 1805 in the country 
around St. Louis. Br'^ish traders had overrun Minnesota and the Dakotas, 
and the Spanish authorities had equipped galleys to patrol the Missouri and 
Mississippi rivers, in order lO protect the interests of licensed traders and pre- 
vent the occupation of the country by others. 

The Indians, themselves, had no objection to traders, for the opportunity 
to trade gave them the means to buy the essentials to Indian happiness. They 
were generally friendly to the British traders and unfriendly to the Spanish, and 
would frequently lie in wait to destroy the galleys, or to attack the Spanish traders 
making their way up the rivers. Occasionally they would be incited by one trader 
to make war upon another, and they were quick to recognize the advantage in 
trade held by the British over those of the United States, by reason of the high 
duties the latter were compelled to pay on the leading articles the Indians desired 
to buy. 

There was little, if any, attention paid to the international boundary, and 
goods were being shipped into the United States territory without the payment 
of duty by the British traders. Rival British traders occupied the whole of the 
Canadian boundary ; the British flag was flying over their fortified posts at almost 
every available point for trade, and when the hour of national distress came, they 
led the Indians as their allies in the War of 1812. 

Although the Hudson's Bay Company claimed the Red River Valley and had 
made an attempt to occupy it, the aggressive force was the North- West Company, 
which was occupying every available point for trade. 



90 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

THE UNITED STATES AN INDIAN TRADER 

Lieutenant Pike left the impression among the Indians and traders that it 
was the intention of the Government to not only interfere with and restrict the 
sale of intoxicating liquors, but to establish Government stores at which goods 
should be sold to the Indians at cost, allowing them a reasonable price for fur 
in exchange for goods, and in accordance with this policy, an attempt to do this 
was made by the Government. The treaty with the Osage in November, 1808, 
by Capt. Meriwether Lewis, then governor of Louisiana, provided that the United 
States should establish permanently a well assorted store to be kept at Fort 
Clark, Mo. (also known as Fort Osage), for the purpose of bartering with 
the Indians on moderate terms for their furs and peltries, such store to be kept 
open at all seasons of the year. This article of the treaty was eliminated by 
amendment, in the treaty of 1822, the United States paying the Indians $2,329.40 
to be relieved from that provision of the treaty. Similar agreements had been 
made for trading facilities with other Indian tribes, from which the Government, 
also, secured release. 

It was believed that it was the true policy of the Government to draw the 
Indians within the plane of civilization, and that to furnish them goods at cost 
and pay them the full value for their peltries, would be an object lesson that would 
lead them in that direction. 

The factories established by the Government were mainly east of the Mis- 
"sissippi River. There was only Fort Osage west of the Missouri. 

While undertaking to furnish the Indians with goods at cost, the Govern- 
ment issued licenses to other traders desiring to enter into competition. The 
private trader advanced supplies, and whatever the Indian might require when 
he started on the hunt, generally accompanying him, and securing his furs as 
fast as taken. The Government stores could not give credit, nor could they sell 
intoxicating liquors to the Indians, but the private traders smuggled liquors into 
the country and satisfied their yearning for it. The Government traders were 
required to sell .\merican goods, but the American blankets and other goods 
were not then equal to those imported, and could not be sold to the Indians in 
competition with English goods. The private trader usually spoke the Indian 
language, was personally acquainted with the Indians and had an interest in 
securing trade and in the profits resulting therefrom, but the Government trader 
was a salaried person, had nothing to gain by making sales and nothing to lose 
if he failed. The system was abandoned in 1822, largely through the persistent 
efforts of United States Senator Thomas H. Benton of Missouri, who led the 
assaults upon it in the interests of the American Fur Company, having its west- 
em headquarters at St. Louis. 

THE AMERICAN FUR COMPANY 

The American Fur Company was organized under a charter granted by the 
State of New York, approved April 6, 1808. John Jacob Astor was the com- 
pany. Auxiliary companies were organized for special purposes and special ' 
places, and called by various names. Astor retaining a controlling interest in 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 91 

each, and merging the business of each with that of the American Company, for 
which he sought the markets of the world. 

The Pacilic Fur Company, organized June lo, 1810, was one of these special 
organizations. A part of the company was sent by sea to the mouth of the 
Columbia River on the Pacific coast, and other members went overland, leav- 
ing the Arikara villages on the Missouri River June 12, 181 1, reaching Astoria 
the following January. In 1816 Congress passed an act, excluding foreigners 
from the fur trade in the territory of the United States, excepting in subordinate 
capacities under American management. This was brought about, in part, by 
the activity of the traders during the War of 1812, on behalf of Great Britain, 
but due largely to the influence of Mr. Astor. This gave him the opportunity 
to take up the interests of the North-West Company in the United States, which 
he consolidated with the South-West Company, previously organized, and the 
Pacific Fur Company, and enabled him to recoup his previous losses on the 
Pacific coast. 

The American Fur Company was reorganized in 1817, and a western depart- 
ment established with headquarters at St. Louis. Ramsey Crooks became the 
general agent, assisted by Robert Stuart. Russell Farnham was the chief repre- 
sentative on the Mississippi, and to him is given the credit of being the first to 
carry the trade of the American Fur Company into the Missouri River region. 
Pierre Choteau, and his associates, became interested in the company in 1829. 

The Missouri Fur Company was reorganized in 1818, its membership then 
consisting of Manuel Lisa, Thomas Hempstead, Joshua Pilcher, Joseph Perkins, 
Andrew Wood, Moses Carson, John B. Immel and Robert Jones. 

FORT WILLI.^M 

For many years Grand Portage was the headquarters of the fur trade on 
the great lakes, but under the treaty of amity and commerce of 1794, between 
the United States and Great Britain, known as the John Jay treaty, it was pro- 
vided that all British forts within the territory of the United States should be 
evacuated within two years. Accordingly Grand Portage was abandoned. Fort 
William — so named for William McGillivray, the Montreal manager of the 
North-West Company — was established, and the headquarters were transferred 
to that post. 

Fort William overlooking the bay on the north side of Lake Superior was 
surrounded by a palisade and in its center stood the headquarters building, with 
its walls hung with costly paintings, and beautifully decorated. There was a 
council chamber and parlor where the members of the company, known as part- 
ners, and their guests were entertained. The dining room, supplied with tables 
for the various employees as well as for the managers, the partners and their 
guests, was 60 by 30 feet in extent. There were private rooms for the partners 
at either end of the dining hall, which was flanked by sleeping rooms, and a 
large kitchen and other conveniences. There were, also, the general store, 
within the stockade, the canteen or liquor store, the warehouses and w^orkshops, 
and the home of the resident partners and employees. Several hundred persons 
were usually camped in the vicinity of the fort, some seeking pleasure and others 
waiting for employment when the busy season should commence. 



92 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

The members of the company who spent the winters in the field were called 
the "wintering partners." Others were at Fort William in order to receive and 
forward general goods and furs, and still others, at Montreal, managing the 
general interests of the company, buying and selling supplies and products. 

They practically controlled the trade of the lakes and forests, and the streams 
entering the lakes. 

Washington Irving wrote of the power of these autocrats: 

"The partners held a lordly sway over the wintry lakes and boundless forests 
of the Canadas, almost equal to the East India Company over the voluptuous 
climes and magnificent realms of the Orient." 

And of its decadence: 

"The feudal state of Fort William is at an end; its council chambers no 
longer echo in the old world ditty; the lords of the lakes and forests have passed 
away." 

The annual meeting of the company was held at Fort William, and on these 
occasions, and on holidays, banquets were given to the visiting partners that were 
almost regal in character. The tables were supplied with every luxury from the 
east and the west — with game from the forests, and choicest of the finny tribes 
from the lakes and streams, and the most costly wines and liquors. As the 
morning hours approached and the festivities reached the carousal stage, restraint 
was relaxed and the doors were thrown open, when the voyageurs, servants and 
attendants were permitted to look on and laugh, if not to participate in the merry 
pranks and songs of the wine-heated partners and their guests. 

THE VOYAGEURS . 

The canoe, which was the only means of transportation between the East and 
the West, was made of birch bark, and carried from one and one-half to four 
tons of freight, or an equivalent number of passengers, and swiftly sped over 
the lakes and streams, manned by voyageurs, merrily singing some favorite ditty, 
such as : 

"Kow, brother, row; the stream runs fast. 
The rapids are near and the daylight is past," 

and when the rapids were reached, they would as merrily carry boat and freight 
over the portage, around the rapids, or, from one stream to another, and pass 
on, singing: 

"Faintly as tolls the evening chime. 
Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time." 

Also for the evening the following was a favorite: 

"Sing nightingale, keep singing, 
Thou hast a heart so gay; 
Thou hast a heart so merry, 
While mine is sorrow's prey." k|H 

Several hundred descendants of these people became residents of North 
Dakota. They had passed through all the experiences to be encountered in 




PONCA INDIANS ENCAMPED ON THE BANKS OF THE MISSOURI 

Fjom a painting by Charles Bodmer from "Travels to the Interior of North America in 

1S32-3-4," by Maximilian, Prince of Wied, 1843. 




THE VOYAGEURS AT THE POPvTAGE 



j 

I 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 93 

frontier life, beginning with the happy hfe of the voyageur, participating in the 
dangers of war, and in the excitement of the chase, setthng down, at last to 
the quiet life of the rancher and fanner. 

Peter Grant, who established the first trading post at the mouth of the Pem- 
bina, heretofore mentioned, was an interesting writer. Of the canoe service he 
said : 

"The North- West Company's canoes, manned with five men, carry about three 
thousand pounds. They seldom draw more than eighteen inches of water, and go 
generally at the rate of six miles an hour in calm weather. When arriving at a 
portage, the bowman instantly jumps into the water, to prevent the canoe from 
touching the bottom, while the others tie their slings to the packs in the canoe 
and swing them on their backs to carrj' over the portage. The bowman and 
steerman carry the canoe, a duty from which the middlemen are exempt. The 
whole is conducted with astonishing expedition, a necessary consequence of the 
enthusiasm which always attends their long and perilous voyages. It is pleasant 
to see them, when the weather is calm and serene, paddling in their canoes, sing- 
ing in chorus their simple, melodious strains and keeping exact time with their 
paddles, which efl^ectually beguiles their labors. When they arrive at a rapid, 
the guide or foreman's business is to explore the waters previous to their rimning 
down with their canoes, and, according to the height of water, they either lighten 
the canoe by taking out part of the cargo and carry it overland, or run down 
the whole load. 

THE SELKIRK COLONY 

In 1801 Sir Alexander Mackenzie published an account of his explorations, 
which attracted the attention of Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, who conceived 
the idea of colonizing a considerable number of the homeless people of his own 
land where a strong and loyal community might be built up. He endeavored to 
interest the Hudson's Bay Company in a colonization scheme, but failed to secure 
concessions from them; it being their policy to prevent settlement and to retard 
development, and hold the country for the Indian trade entirely. Thereupon he 
proceeded quietly to purchase, through his own resources and the assistance of 
his friends, a controlling interest in the stock of that company, and having accom- 
plished this, on May 30, 181 1, the company sold to him 110,000 square miles of 
the land, embracing all of the Red River within the British possession, and the 
streams tributary thereto, with other lands. Selkirk was materially assisted in 
accomplishing his purpose by the accounts of the explorations of Lewis and Clark 
published in England and other foreign countries. 

THE SELKIRK PURCHASE 

The country purchased by Selkirk, without other consideration than his agree- 
ment to colonize it, covered an area of upwards of seventy million acres, described, 
in detail, as follows : 

"Beginning at the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg, at a point on 52° 50' 
north latitude, and thence running due west to Lake Winnipegoosis, otherwise 
called Little Winnipeg; thence in a southerly direction through said lake, so as 



94 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

to strike its western shore in latitude 52° ; thence due west to the place where 
parallel 52° intersects the western branch of the Red River; thence due south 
from that point of intersection to the height of land which separates the waters 
running into Hudson Bay from those running into the Missouri and Mississippi 
rivers ; thence in an easterly direction along the height of land to the' source of 
the River Winnipeg, meaning by such last named, the principal branch of the 
waters which unite in the Lake Saginalis ; thence along the main stream of those 
waters and the middle of the several lakes through which they flow, to the mouth 
of the River Winnipeg, and thence in a northerly direction through the middle 
of Lake Winnipeg to the place of beginning, which territory shall be called 
Assiniboia."' 

The grant embraced nearly all of what is now Manitoba, and a small portion 
of North Dakota. Having thus secured the land, Selkirk sought to interest in his 
colonization scheme the Scotch Highlanders, who were at that time being evicted 
from the Sutherland and other estates in Scotland. The Sutherland estate em- 
braced some seven hundred square miles of well populated territory. All tenants 
within a defined district were ordered to vacate within a given time, and when 
that time expired, if any remained, they were forcibly evicted, whether sick or 
well, and their homes given to the flames. It was partly to meet the needs of this 
class of peo]ile, to find "homes for the homeless," who formed the bulk of his 
colony, that Selkirk undertook the work of colonization. 

Under these conditions it was not difficult to obtain colonists, and that year 
he dispatched seventy persons to the Red River \'alley, who arrived the year 
after, followed by fifteen or twenty more the next year, by ninety-three in 1814; 
by 100 in 181 5; about two hundred and seventy being Scotch Highlanders, of 
whom 130 became permanent settlers. 

The first party was in command of Capt. Miles Macdonnell, who had seen 
service in the British army, the colonists meeting with opposition and petty an- 
noyances from the start by agents of the North-West Company, who were, also 
opposed to the settlement of the country. Other parties leaving England for 
the colony were interrupted and annoyed by North-West Company influences; 
some of its designing members having purchased stock in the Hudson's Bay 
Company, 4ioping to defeat Selkirk's project. 

The colonists were not only distressed before they left for Rupert's Land, as 
the country came to be known, but there was sickness and trouble at sea, and 
when they arrived at York factory, Hudson Bay, September 24, 181 1, they were 
landed without any previous preparations to receive them, and even the sick were, 
without shelter. Their trip to the Red River the next spring, through an unset- 
tled country, though by canoe, was an arduous one. 

After they reached the Red River they were annoyed in every conceivable 
manner, by persons dressed in Lidian garl), threatening them and committing 
petty depredations upon their property, for the purpose of frightening them; out- 
rages which it was intended should be attributed to the Indians. Finally 140 of 
the colonists were led away by agents of the North-\'\'est Company, who prom- 
ised them land in Canada, a year's provisions, and other considerations, but the 
more sturdy ones refused to leave. June 25, 1815. these were attacked by the 
Hois Brule, as the half-bloods were called, one of their number killed, several 
wounded, and their homes Iiurned. Those who survived were driven away, but 



Mi 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 95 

were piloted to the Hudson's Day Company factory, on Lake Winnipeg, by 
friendly Indians. 

The distrust natural to the Indians had gradually been displaced by a liking 
for the colonists, not only because they ottered a market for meats -the traders 
refused to buy, but for their sturdy integrity. Unlike the majority of their race, 
whose preconceived opinions, as will be noted further on, were not flattering to 
the whites in general, they had found white men who were not liars, and were 
not trying to harm or take advantage of them, and though they ridiculed their 
"tender feet."' they stood ready to act in their defense, and all efforts to induce 
them to attack the colonists failed. 

On the arrival of the new settlers in June, 1815, the colonists who had been 
driven away, returned and rebuilt their cabins and harvested their crops. Because 
no preparations had been made to receive the colonists of that year, and on ac- 
count of the scarcity of provisions, seventy-five of the strongest went to Pembina 
where there was a deserted trading post, which was fitted up for their comfort, 
and a number of new cabins erected. The buffalo were, also, abundant near 
Pembina, and pemmican could be obtained for food from the Indians. 

The succeeding winter was a severe one, the mercury sometimes falling to 
45 degrees below zero, with deep snows. Their supplies of food were very low, 
but vi'ith pemmican obtained from the Indians, fish — caught through holes in the 
ice — from the river, and an occasional dog, which they relished under the cir- 
cumstances, they managed to subsist during the winter, and in the spring they 
gathered the seed-balls of the wild rose and acorns, which, cooked with buffalo 
fat, afforded nutritious aliment. 

• During the trouble with the settlers in the summer of 1815, Governor Miles 
Macdonnell had been arrested and carried away from the colony by Duncan 
Cameron, the North-\\'est Company governor, acting as an alleged Canadian 
officer, and the artillery belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company post had been 
seized, on the ground that it had been used to break the peace, when used in 
defense of the colony. But among the new arrivals that year was Robert Semple, 
a former officer of the British army, who assumed the duties of governor of the 
colony. He spent a portion of the winter at Pembina, where the Xorth-West 
Company had a trading post, known as the Pembina House. This he seized, and 
arrested the managers — who were afterwards released — and, also, in Alay, 1816, 
attacked and razed a post belonging to the company, known as Fort Gibraltar, 
which was in charge of Cameron, using the material to strengthen the defenses 
at Fort Douglas, the Hudson's Bay Company post, and to rebuild the homes of 
the settlers. 

Fort Gibraltar was erected for the old X. Y. Company, the Montreal rival of 
the North-West Company, represented by John Wills. 

The stockade was made of oak logs, split in two, fifteen feet high. There 
were eight buildings, viz., four, 64, 36. 28 and 32 feet in length, respectively, and 
a blacksmith shop, a stable, a kitchen and an ice house. Twenty men were 
engaged a year in its construction. 

Fort Douglas, the site of the settlement of the Selkirk Colony, was one mile 
below the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. Here was the residence 
of the governor. Selkirk gave it the name Kildonan, in 1817, in honor of the set- 
tlers who came from Kildonan parish in Scotland. 



96 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

In the spring of 1816, the settlers left their quarters at Pembina, known as 
Fort Daer, occupied winters by members of the colony until 1823, and planting 
their crops, looked for favorable returns and for peace, yet fearing the worst, 
for the retaliatory measures adopted by Governor Semple had made bloodshed 
almost certain. 

THE GOVERNOR AND SETTLERS KILLED 

On June 16, 1816, the settlers were again attacked by the Bois Brule, and 
the governor and twenty-one out of twenty-eight of his officers and men were 
shot and killed at Seven Oaks, whereupon Fort Douglas was surrenderd to the 
representatives of the North-West Company. The attacking party was com- 
manded by Cuthbert Grant, and the attack was planned by Duncan Cameron, 
the chief officer of the North- West Company, especially instructed to destroy the 
colony. Through many kindnesses done the colonists, and through being able to 
speak their languages, he had succeeded in planting the seeds of discord, and in 
leading away the major portion of the colony before the attack of the previous 
year. 

It may be doubted that murder was intended. The Montreal traders had been 
the first to explore and open the country to trade, followed by the Hudson's Bay 
Company at every important point. The Hudson's Bay Company's grant to 
Selkirk embraced much of a country which the North-West Company regarded 
their own by right of discovery or original French leases or grants, and by occu- 
pation. Selkirk had given them a limited time in which to leave the territory, 
and his agents had captured their Fort Gibraltar and razed it, taking absolute 
command of the river, interrupting their communication with their frontier posts 
and paralyzing their business ; and he had also captured their post at Pembina. 
He failed to supply his colonists with provisions or means of cultivating the soil, 
but had not neglected to furnish them with arms and ammunition, and a battery 
of artiller}', and Governor Macdonnell had thoroughly drilled them, exciting the 
belief that the colony was to be used as a military force to crush the North-West 
Company and utterly destroy their business. This Cameron was expected to 
prevent. 

< At Sault Ste. Marie, on his way to this colony, Selkirk learned of the murder 
of Governor Semple and his party. His expedition consisted of about two hun- 
dred and fifty men; among them 100 men of the DeMeuron and Watteville 
regiment, whom he had hired to go to the colony and defend it, if need be; 150 
canoe men and other employees. He immediately proceeded to Fort William, 
the headquarters of the North-West Company, and, acting as a magistrate, ar- 
rested all of the principal men connected with the company, and sent them to 
Canada for trial. He wintered at Fort William, proceeding to his colony the next 
spring, and upon his arrival in June, restored order and confidence. He gave deeds , 
for the lands on which his settlers had made improvements, made treaties with 
the Indians for the extinguishment of their title to the lands he claimed, made 
a treaty of peace with the Sioux, and, though a Protestant, he urged the Catholic 
authorities to establish a mission at Fort Douglas, and for this purpose gave 
twenty-five acres for the church, and a tract of land, 5 miles long by 4 miles 
wide, promising any additional aid he or his friends might be able to render. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 97 

THE CHURCH AND SCHOOLS ESTABLISHED 

For 150 years the Hudson's Bay Company had owned and occupied Rupert's 
Land. They had generally prospered, and their stock had paid large dividends, 
and yet, in all that land, there was neither church nor chapel, priest nor teacher — 
not a single school had heen founded. But this condition was to prevail no 
longer. 

In February, 1816, selection was made by the Bishop of Quebec of the person 
to establish the mission requested by Selkirk, and for which his colonists had 
petitioned. July 16, 1818, Father Joseph Provencher and his companion, Father 
Joseph Severe Dumoulin, arrived at Fort Douglas, and established a mission 
which thereafter was known as St. Boniface. Soon after their arrival grasshop- 
pers visited the Red River country, and completely destroyed the crops of the 
settlers, forcing the new colonists, who arrived that year, also to go to Pembina, 
where there was already a considerable settlement. 

Father Dumoulin went to Pembina the latter part of August, and Septem- 
ber 8, 1818, celebrated mass at Pembina, the first Christian service within the 
limits of what is now North Dakota. 

He founded a school, which was placed in charge of William Edge, and when 
the Vicar General (Provencher) arrived in January, 1819, there were sixty 
pupils in the school, and 300 people in the parish, while at St. Boniface, the foun- 
dation of Winnipeg, there were about fifty. The first teachers in the school at St. 
Boniface were the two Misses Nolen, Pembina girls and daughters of the trader. 

Of the commercial advantages of Pembina, the Vicar General thus wrote to 
the bishop: 

"That post is for the present very important. From there I, with all of the 
colony, receive all of my provisions. I shall continue to build there." 

He spoke of his chapel at St. Boniface, 80x35 feet, and his "shop" at Pem- 
bina, 24x18 feet, with a presbytery, 60x30 feet. He was disquieted by the infor- 
mation that Pembina was on the American side of the international boundary line, 
and admitted that his plan had been disarranged by the information, but he 
intended "to continue to build, for Father Dumoulin must spend the winter 
there." 

In 1819 and 1820, the grasshoppers again destroyed the crops, leaving the 
colonists entirely dependent upon Pembina for subsistence. Provencher spent 
the winter of 1819-20 at Pembina. Almost every one had left St. Boniface 
for the winter. 

In 1820 Provencher was appointed coadjutor bishop of Quebec with the 
title of Bishop of JuliopoHs, and May 12, 1822, was consecrated. He returned 
to St. Boniface in August, 1822, after an absence of two years from the colony, 
to find that the Hudson's Bay Company had insisted upon the withdrawal of the 
priests from Pembina, for the reason that it was on the American side. This was 
determined by observations made by David Thompson for the North-West Com- 
pany in 1798, and confirmed in August, 1823, by Maj. Stephen H. Long, the 
priests ha^'ing withdrawn the previous January. 

Some of the settlers after the withdrawal of the priests founded the parish 

of St. Francis Xavier, and others went to Fort Snelling, and various points in 

the United States, the colonists generally returning to St. Boniface, as they had 
Vol. 1—7 



98 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

been in the habit of doing, each spring. Father DumouHn was heart-broken over 
the destruction of the interests he had built up at Pembina, and returned to 
Canada, where he died in 1853. 

Hudson's uav company and north-west company amalgamated 

Regarding the amalgamation of the Hudson's Bay and North-West com- 
panies, the following letter was written by Alexander Lean to Peter Fidler, both 
members of the Hudson's Bay Company, at London, May 21, 1821 : 

"I received your esteemed favor of the 14th August last from Norway House. 
I thank you much for the information it contained. I shall now, in return, give 
you such intelligence as will, I trust, not only be agreeable to you but to every 
individual in the service. 

"In the first place, all misunderstanding between the honorable company 
and the North-West Company is totally at an end. You are to know that the 
honorable company caused it to be announced in the Gazette and daily papers, 
that a general board of proprietors would be held at their house on Monday, the 
26th March last. It was so held and many of the Hudson's Bay and North-West 
proprietors attended. Tendency of this meeting was to promulgate that a union 
between the two companies had taken place. I cannot enumerate the resolutions 
which unanimously passed on the occasion, let it suffice for me to acquaint you 
that it appears to have been a well-digested plan, which eventually will tend to 
the advantage of both companies. 

"Mr. Garry, a gentleman of the honorable committee, accompanied by Mr. 
Simon McGillivray, has embarked for New York, from thence to Montreal in 
order to proceed to the company settlements, the North-West stations and Red 
River. If you should see Mr. Garry you will find him a gentleman in every 
respect, and deserving respectful attention. The whole concern will be appor- 
tioned into shares to which the North-West agent will be entitled. 

"I was present at the general board (being a proprietor) and after the busi- 
ness was concluded a mutual congratulation passed between the governor, etc., 
and myself, and I sincerely wish every individual, a fellow laborer in the same 
vineyard in which I was till lately, joy on the happy event." 

Peter Fidler was a surveyor and a very well-known officer in the service of 
the Hudson's Bay Company; John Wills, the Pembina manager of the North- 
West Company, is mentioned in the will of Mr. Fidler, dated August 16, 1821. 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 

VIXCENNES THr, KEY — CLARK AND HAMILTON WAYNE AND THE TREATY OF GREEN- 
VILLE POST VINCENTS OR VINCENNES JOHN TANNER, THE WHITE CAPTIVE 

AT OLD PEMBINA PE-SHAU-BA's RECOLLECTIONS AND DEATH — LORD SELKIRK 

AND TANNER THE SHAWNEE PROPHET — -MESSENGER AT PEMBINA— THE SIOUX 

AT THE GATES JEFFERSON TO ADAMS DRAWING THE LINE — HARRISON AND 

TECUMSEH BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE — THE PASSING OF TENKSWATAWA. 

"For one by one, the scattered race 
Hath slowly dropped from time and space. 
All silently they slipped away, 
As shadows pass at close of day. 
So vanish like the morning dew, 
The older clans before the new." 

— Susan H. Wixon, "Indian Tozvn." 

VINCENNES THE KEY 

The country north of the Ohio River had come into the possession of the 
United States through the capture of Post Vincents, or Vincennes, by Col. George 
R. Clark, with the co-operation of Patrick Henry, who was the first governor 
of Virginia and held the office by successive re-elections until 1779, and was 
again elected at the close of the Revolutionary war. 

The post, which was of great importance for trade, was located on the east 
bank of the Wabash River, in Indiana, 150 miles above its junction with the 
Ohio River, and was taken from the British, who had acquired the territory in 
1763, and had held it for a period of nineteen years. 

The fort was built by Francois Morganne de la Vincenne, an officer in the 
service of the King of France, in the fall of 1702, on the site of the present 
City of Vincennes. The plot of ground was held until 1839, when it was 
divided and sold in lots. It owed its origin to military necessity for protecting 
French possessions, and was one of a contemplated chain of forts to connect 
Canada with Louisiana. It was built of logs, and when it was torn down in 
1820. the logs were used in the construction of private houses. 

The Indians were friendly and assisted in building the fort, and among the 
tribes surrounding the location was the Shawnee. It was one time called "Fort 
.Sackville" by the British, in honor of .Sir Thomas Sackville, earl of Dorset, and 
prime minister of Great Britain when that government assumed possession of 
the territory, but the change was never acknowledged by the citizens of the 

99 



100 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

town. Colonel Clark changed the name to "Fort Patrick Henry," but it did not 
stand. The founder of the fort was burned at the stake after a battle with the 
Chickasaws, on Easter Sunday, 1736. He refused to join in the retreat, and 
remained with his wounded and dying soldiers in the hands of the Indians. 

The British commander, Henry Hamilton, lieutenant governor and superin- 
tendent, held the fort when besieged by Colonel Clark, and notes of capitulation 
between otticers were exchanged February 24, 1779, Great Britain surrendering 
to Virginia for the following reasons : 

"The remoteness from succor, the state and quantity of provisions ; unanimity 
of officers and men in its expediency ; the honorable terms allowed, and, lastly 
the confidence in a generous enemy." During the siege one of Clark's men was 
wounded, and in the fort seven men were badly wounded out of a garrison of 
seventy-nine men. 

The most powerful Indian in the country was "Tobacco's Son," who was 
friendly to Clark. 

IMPORTANCE OF THE SURRENDER 

This was one of the most important periods in its consequences in the history 
of the American Revolution, for the reason that owing to this conquest, and the 
consequent civil and military control of the Northwest, we were able to secure 
in the Treaty of Paris, made by representatives of Great Britain and the United 
States after the close of the war, the concession of the Mississippi River for 
our western boundary. 

The land lay between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, embracing the 
states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The 
states of Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut, claimed 
a portion of this country by virtue of their charters from the king, but each, in 
turn, surrendered. New York, Virginia and Maryland not yielding until 1781. 

THE TREATY OF PARIS, 1 783 

The definitive treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain was 
signed at Paris on September 3, 1783, by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and 
John Jay, on the part of the United States, and David Hartley for Great Britain, 
between Prince George III, by the grace of God, king of Great Britain, France 
and Ireland, defender of the faith, etc., and the United States of America, con- 
sisting of the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and 
Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, 
acknowledged by his Britannic Majesty to be free, sovereign and independent 
states. 

After the conquest by Clark the country around Vincennes became a part 
of the Commonwealth of Virginia. In 1784 Thomas Jefferson proposed that 
Congress should divide the domain into ten states, but the proposition failed. 
In 1786 the Northwest Territory treaties were made by the United States with 
the Shawnees. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 101 

THE ORDINANCE OF I787 

In 1787, a bill was passed by Congress entitled "An Ordinance for the Gov- 
ernment of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the River Ohio." 

The ordinance was modeled after the constitution accepted by the people of 
the State of Massachusetts in 1780, and Daniel Webster said of it: "No single 
law of any lawgiver, ancient or modern, has produced effects of more distinct, 
marked, and lasting character, than the Ordinance of 1787." 

It forever prohibited slavery or involuntary servitude, "otherwise than in the 
punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; pro- 
\ided, always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or 
service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original states, such fugitive may 
be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or 
services as aforesaid." 

It declared that "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good 
government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education 
shall forever be encouraged." 

Relative to the treatment of the original owners of the soil it clearly sets 
forth that: "The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians; 
their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; 
and in their property rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, 
unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress; but laws founded in 
justice and humanity shall from time to time be made, for preventing wrongs 
being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them." 

The movement for the organization of this territory had been initiated by 
an organization of the officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary war, to whom 
land scrip had been issued which had little value, and it was hoped that the sale 
of the fertile lands in this region would enable them to use or dispose of their 
holdings. Soldiers, trappers, hunters, and others who had passed beyond the 
Alleghanies, had excited an interest in the country which demanded its develop- 
ment. Further treaties with the Indians were necessary, however, in order to 
develop the country. 

WAYNE AND THE TREATY OF GREENVILLE 

An important movement having been decided upon by the United States 
Government, which Gen. Anthony Wayne was commissioned to lead, he passed 
the spring and summer of 1793 at Fort Washington (now Cincinnati, Ohio) in 
recruiting and drilling his men, proceeding on October 7th of that year to the 
region now designated as Darke County, where he erected Fort Greenville, passing 
the winter there. 

After repeated failures to negotiate treaties of peace with the Indians, he 
gave them fair warning and then declared war, which ended August 20, 1794, 
in a victory for Wayne. The result was that on June 10, 1795, a council of 
delegates from the Indian nations convened at Greenville and on August 3, 1795, 
the Treaty of Greenville was signed by Maj.-Gen. Anthony Wayne, commanding 
the armies of the United States, commissioner on behalf of the United States 
for the occasion ; and ninety chiefs and delegates of twelve tribes of Indians, viz., 



102 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, Ottawas, Chippewas, Potawatamies, 
Miamis, Eel River, Weeas, Kickapoos, Piankashaws and Kaskaskias, yielded to 
the United States their rights to all the territory south and east of the line then 
fixed. The line passed up the Cuyahoga and across the Tuscarawas Portage to 
the forks of the Tuscarawas near Fort Lawrence, and then south of west to 
Laramie's Store, thence west by north to Fort Recovery, and thence southwest- 
wardly to the Ohio River, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky. 

The lands north and west of the point named were conceded to be Indian 
lands excepting 150,000 acres granted to George R. Clark and his warriors, the 
post at Vincennes, and the lands adjacent thereto and the lands at other places 
in possession of the whites and six miles square at Chicago, Fort Wayne, 
Defiance, Sandusky and other points forming a complete chain of forts from the 
mouth of the Illinois and along the great lakes and a considerable tract at Detroit, 
the Indians agreeing to allow the free use of harbors, mouths of rivers and of 
the streams and portages throughout their vast domain and in addition to benefits 
received under former treaties they were to receive $20,000 in goods and presents 
and $9,500 annually forever for the surrender of their advantages ; injuries and 
expenses sustained in the Indian wars by the United States being taken into con- 
sideration. As small as these annuities were they were divided among the sev- 
eral tribes and to each a certain portion. 

JOHN T.'\NNER, THE WHITE CAPTIVE 

Among the characters who left their mark on the early days of the Red 
River was John Tanner, son of a clergyman who emigrated to the Ohio River in 
1789, and with his family had been settled but a few days, when John, then a 
lad of twelve years, was captured by an Indian from Lake Huron. 

His mother died in his early childhood. His father married again, and feeling 
himself aggrieved he fancied he would prefer living with the Indians. Accord- 
ingly when he was punished for a misdemeanor by being confined to the house, 
he slipped out unnoticed and ran to the woods where there was a favorite walnut 
tree, and being found there was carried away by Manito-o-geezhik "to make his 
wife's heart glad," for she mourned a son lost by disease. 

The child was adopted into the family, but Manito-o-geezhik becoming dis- 
satisfied with him tomahawked him, and threw him into the bushes for dead, 
but his wife, when he told where he was, hurried to the spot, found him still alive 
and nursed him back to health. 

Later, Manito-o-geezhik sold him to Net-no-kwa, a noted woman, who was 
a wise and influential chief of the Ottawas. She gave Manito-o-geezhik two ten 
gallon kegs of whisky, a number of blankets, and other presents, for the boy. 

Manito-o-geezhik had treated him cruelly, telling him he was going back to 
his home to kill his people, and after an absence of three weeks brought him 
his brother's hat which had a bullet hole in it, and told him he had killed the 
whole family. Recognizing his brother's hat, Tanner believed him, but nearly 
thirty years after, he found that the Indian had captured his brother and vied him 
to a tree for the night, but he managed to escape and returned to his home. 

Net-no-kwa was always very good to Tanner, and he learned to love her as 
he would a mother. She dressed him well, allowed him to play with other 
children and gave him enough to eat. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 103 

In 1792, Net-no-kwa had moved from her home on Lake Huron lo the Red 
River country to hunt beaver, and on her way her husband was killed, and her 
son and son-in-law died, and to drown trouble she resorted to indulgence in 
liquor, contrary to former temperate habits, and thereafter she had occasional 
periods of intoxication, when she would give nearly all she possessed for liquor 
for herself and companions whom she treated as royally as her means would 
permit. 

Tanner remained with his foster-mother, and cared for her, until long after 
he became a man. He grew into a mighty hunter, so great that the Indians 
became jealous of him. One tomahawked him when he was asleep in his tent, 
and another shot him, but, in each case, although severely wounded, he recovered. 

Although taken away from his home when so young, and entirely forgetting 
his mother tongue, having been trained in Indians ways of thought and expres- 
sion, he stated that he had always been conscious of his entire dependence upon 
a superior being and invisible power, but that he had felt this conviction, much 
more powerfully in time of distress and danger, and knew that the Great Spirit 
saw and heard, when he called on him to pity the distress of himself and family. 

Tanner was noted for his integrity and bravery, and it is related of him 
that he once brought two parcels of fur to the Red River trading post, one of 
which he sold to pay a debt to the North-West Company trader, intending to use 
the other to settle with the Hudson's Bay Company, but in that he was violently 
opposed by the trader of the former company, who when persuasion failed to 
change his purpose, threatened him with bodily injury, and Tanner still per- 
sisting in having his own way, the trader placed a pistol to his breast, when 
Tanner, undaunted, pointing to his bare bosom, told him to "fire away," declaring 
that though he was a stranger in a strange land, a captive and a slave, he would 
not raise a weapon against any man and then refrain from killing him because 
he was afraid. 

This exhibition of courage gained him the liberty to dispose of his furs to 
suit himself, and pay his just debt to the rival company. 



AT OLD PEMBIN.\ 

Net-no-kwa, accompanied by Tanner, arrived at Pembina the day before 
the advent of Chaboillez in 1797, and found no indications of whites e\er having 
Ijeen there. 

Tanner was among the Indians then hunting in that region, trapping along 
all of the streams emptying into the Red River as far north as the Bois des Sioux 
where he spent one winter, often killing as many as 100 beaver in a inonth. He 
took that number one month on the Bois des Sioux, without the aid of a gun, 
and in his hunting he sometimes killed as many as twenty animals with a 
single ball, using it over and over again. 

In Mr. Tanner's "Narrative," he states that about the year 1800, it was no 
uncommon thing for an Indian to give five or six prime beaver skins for a quart 
of Saulteur liquor, — a gill or two of alcohol, the rest water. 

On the Mouse River, in the course of a single day, Net-no-kwa sold 120 



104 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

beaver skins, with a large quantity of other furs, for rum, at the price of six 
skins for a quart. 

"Of all of our large load of peltries, the produce of so many days toil, of 
so many long and difficult journeys, one blanket and three kegs of rum only 
remained besides the poor and almost worn out clothing on our backs," was 
Tanner's sorrowful reflection. 

The price they paid per quart was, fairly, the equivalent of $i8, and, as 
Tanner says, "They put a great deal of water in that." 

pe-shau-ba's recollections and death 

Among the Ottawa friends of Net-no-kwa, was an unusually bright and 
good Indian Chief named Pe-shau-ba. He was good to every one, and especially 
to young Tanner. He always gave of his substance to help others, and often 
interfered to stop trouble, and no matter how freely he gave, he always had, if 
not an abundance, enough to supply his own wants and to divide with his 
intimate friends, but he became very ill, and calling Tanner to him, addressed 
to him the following words, as related in Tanner's "Narrative": 

"I remember before I came to live in this world I was with the Great Spirit 
above, and I looked down and saw men upon the earth. I saw many good and 
desirable things and, among others, a beautiful woman, and as I looked down 
day after day at the woman. He said to me : 

" 'Pe-shau-ba, do you love the woman you are so often looking at?' I told 
Him I did. He then said to me: 'Go down and spend a few winters on earth. 
You cannot stay long, and you must remember to be always kind to my children 
whom you see below.' So I came down, but I have never forgotten what He 
said to me. When my people have fought with their enemies, I have not struck 
my friends in their lodges. I have disregarded the foolishness of young men 
who would have offended me, but have always been ready and willing to lead 
our brave men against the Sioux. I have always gone into battle painted black, 
as I am now, and I now hear the same voice that talked to me before I came 
into this world. It tells me I can remain here no longer. To you, my brother, 
I have been a protector and you will be sorry when I leave you, but be not like a 
woman. You will soon follow in my path." 

He then put on the new clothes Tanner had given him, walked out of the 
lodge, looked at the sun, the sky, the lake and the distant hills, then came in and 
lay down composedly, and in a few moments ceased to breathe. 

"Farewell, sweet lake, farewell, surrounding woods. 

To other groves, through midnight glooms, I stray. 
Beyond the mountains, and beyond the floods. 

Beyond the Huron Bay — 
Prepare the hollow tomb, and place me low, 

My trusty bow and arrows by my side. 
The cheerful bottle and the venison store. 

For long the journey is that I must go 
Without a partner, and without a guide. 

He spoke, and hade the attending mourners weep. 
Then closed his eyes and sunk to endless sleep." 

— Philip Frcncau, "The Dying Indian." 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 105 

LORD SELKIRK AND TANNER 

In 1816, Thomas Douglas, fifth Earl of Selkirk, Baron Daer and Shortcleugh, 
while visiting this country became much attached to John Tanner and located 
his family on the banks of the Ohio River. Tanner, when Lord Selkirk found 
him, had grown to manhood, and had married an Indian woman and after being 
recognized by his family through the exertion of Lord Selkirk, brought several 
of his half-blood children into the United States. Returning afterwards for 
his two daughters, he found that their mother, believing he was about to desert 
her, had given one of their daughters to an Indian, who had agreed to murder 
Tanner, and in the attempt shot him, but not with fatal effect. He was found 
by Maj. Stephen H. Long, the explorer, and his party, in 1823, on the Rainy 
River, alone and uncared for, having been abandoned by his wife and daughters. 

Dr. Edward James, of the Long Expedition, reduced his life and adventures 
to writing and published them in 1830, under the title of "Tanner's Narrative." 
This production confirms much that was written by Alexander Henry. 

THE SHAWNEE PROPHET 

The Indians of America, no less than the white men of Europe, and the brown 
men of Asia, have had many prophets and messiahs, who have taught them spir- 
itual things. 

In November, 1805, there arose a prophet among the Shawnees of Ohio, who 
called himself Tenskwatawa (the "Open Door"). He was twin brother of 
Tecumseh, conspicuous in American history immediately before the War of 
1812, by reason of the setting on foot of an Indian confederacy to hold the Ohio 
River as a boundary beyond which white settlement should not be advanced. 

The Shawnee Propliet, at the height of his popularity was about thirty years 
of age, and is said to have possessed a magnetic personality of extraordinary 
power, notwithstanding the physical drawback of the loss of one eye. 

His friends claimed that he had gained superior insight and knowledge of 
spiritual things by means of a trance, in which he was believed to be dead, and 
preparations were made for his funeral, but he revived, and announced himself 
the bearer of a new revelation from the Master of Life. 

He warned his followers against the use of intoxicating liquors, depicting 
the horrors of drunkenness so vividly, that intoxication became almost unknown 
among the Indians during the period of his influence. He required a return 
to the primitive life, all property to be in common, according to the ai)cient laws 
of the tribes, and all the white man's tools must be discarded, and his customs 
renounced. He denounced the witchcraft practices and medicinal juggleries, 
reserving to himself the power to cure all diseases, and stay the hand of death 
from disease or wounds by supernatural skill. He forbade intermarriage with 
the whites, and the adoption of their dress and firearms, and admonished the 
young to respect the aged and infirm. They must give up their dogs, and keep 
a fire ever burning in the lodge. 

His followers carried their virtues to such an extent that they even emulated 
the whites of New England, and burned their witches, roasting»one subject four 
days, before death came to her relief. 



106 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

His fame extended to the extreme Southwest, where the Indians had looked 
for a messiah under whose influence "the earth should teem with fruit and 
flowers without the pains of culture, when an ear of corn should be as much 
as one man could carry, and the cotton as it grew should of its own accord take 
the rich dyes of human art, and the air should be laden with intoxicating per- 
fumes and the melody- of birds.'' 

Under the vigorous preaching of a former prophet, many in the southwest 
gave up their flocks and herds, their apiaries and orchards — for they were becom- 
ing civilized — and returned to the forest to take up the simple life of their 
fathers. The influence of the Shawnee Prophet extended to all western and 
southwestern tribes. The Chippewa killed their dogs, ceased, in a measure, to 
fear the Sioux, and tried to lead the life taught by the one they had learned to 
love and look upon as a redeemer. They had mysterious rites of confirmation 
peculiar to their religion. 

THE SHAW'NEE PROPHEt's MESSENGER AT PEMBINA 

Tanner's "Narrative" describes the effect at the Pembina Post of the Prophet's 
doctrines : 

The next spring (1806) we had assembled at the trading house at Pembina. 
The chiefs built a great lodge, and called the men together to receive information 
concerning the Great Spirit. The messenger of the revelation was Manito-o- 
geezhik. a man of no great fame (not Tanner's foster-father) but well known 
among the Chippewas. Little Clam took it upon himself to explain about the meet- 
ing. He sang and prayed, and proceeded to detail the principal features of the 
revelation brought by Manito-o-geezhik : The Indians were to go no more against 
their enemies ; they must no longer steal, defraud or lie, they must neither be 
drunk, nor eat their food nor drink their broth when it was hot; and henceforth 
the fire must never be suffered to go out in the lodge, summer or winter, day or 
night, in storm, or when it was calm. They must remember that the life in the 
body and the fire in the lodge are the same, and of the same date. If they suf- 
fered their fires to be extinguished, at that moment their lives would end. They 
must not sufifer a dog to live. The Prophet himself was coming to shake hands 
with them, but Manito-o-geezhik had come before that they might know what was 
the will of the Great Spirit, communicated to us by him, and to inform them that 
the preservation of their lives depended upon their entire obedience. 

They understood that they were not to kindle a fire with the steels and flint 
of the white man, Ijut with the fire sticks of the olden times, nor were they to use 
the firearms obtained from the whites, but the bows and arrows given to their 
fathers. 

Alanv of the Indians killed their dogs and threw away their steel and flints, 
and endeavored to do as ]\Ianito-o-geezhik had instructed Little Clam to say to 
them. They moved about in fear and humility, and distress and anxiety were 
visible in every countenance. 

Under this inspiration, and the promise that the Sioux should not hurt them, 
they went to the waters of the Upper Red River, where Tanner hunted for 
beaver, and Little Clam relying on the promise, led a party of ten warriors and 
their families towards Devils Lake but the" whole band was cut off bv the Sioux. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 107 

When found, the body of Little Clam was shot full of arrows and on the camp 
ground were many bodies of women and children. Only one man escaped. 

About this time, a leading chief and forty young men came from Leech Lake 
to Pembina to learn more of the message from the Prophet. The arrival of his 
messenger and the ceremony of shaking hands, is thus described by Tanner: 

"When he arrived, he at first maintained a long and mysterious silence before 
announcing that he was the forerunner of the Great Prophet who would soon 
shake hands with the Chippewa and reveal to them his inspired words, and set 
forth the new manner of living which they were hereafter to adopt. 

"When the Indians had gathered in the lodge, we saw something carefully 
concealed under a blanket, in figure and dimensions bearing some resemblance 
to a man. This was accompanied by two young men, who it was understood 
attended constantly upon it, made its bed at night, as for a man, and slept near 
it. But when removed no one went near it, or raised the blanket which was 
spread over its unknown contents. 

"Four strings of mouldy and discolored beads were all the visible insignia 
of this important man. 

"After a long harangue, in which the prominent features of the new revela- 
tion were stated and urged upon the attention of all, the four strings of beads, 
which we were told were made of the flesh of the Prophet, were carried with 
much solemnity to each man in the lodge, and he was expected to take hold of 
each string at the top and draw them quietly through his hand. 

"This was called 'shaking hands with the Prophet,' and was considered as 
solemnly engaging to obey his instructions and accept of his mission as from the 
Supreme. 

"All the Indians that touched the beads had piously killed their dogs; they 
gave up their medicine bags, and showed a disposition to comply with all that 
should be required of them. But in time these new impressions were obliterated, 
medicine bags, flints and steels, the use of which had been forbidden, were 
brought into use, dogs were reared, women and children beaten as before and the 
Shawnee Prophet was depised." 

THE SIOUX AT THE G.\TES 

During the meeting where they went through the ceremony described, the 
Sioux were lying in wait to attack Fort Pembina, and at its close when the gates 
were opened to turn a horse out to graze, they fired and killed the horse. 

The Chippewa who were feasting and dancing after the ceremony took up 
arms at once, and pursued the Sioux, but without result. 

The attacking party proved to be only Wanoton, mentioned in connection 
with Major Long's expedition, and his uncle. The influence of the Prophet re- 
mained for two or three years, during which time there was less drunkenness, 
and less fear of the Sioux. 

Tanner did not kill his dogs, throw away his flint, or keep his fires burning, 
but confesses that he was sometimes uneasy. 

JEFFERSON TO AD.-\MS 

Ex-President Thomas Jefferson to Ex-President John Adams gave his opinion 
of the Prophet in the following terms: 



108 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

• "The Wabash Prophet is more rogue than fool, if to be a rogue is not the 
greatest of. folHes. He rose to notice while I was in the administration, and 
became, of course, a proper subject for me. The inquiry was made with dili- 
gence. His declared object was the reformation of his red brothers and their 
return to their primitive manner of living. He pretended to be in constant com- 
munication with the Great Spirit. * ^^ * I concluded from all this, that he was 
a visionary, enveloped in their antiquities and vainly endeavoring to lead back 
his brethren to the fancied beatitude of the golden age. I thought there was 
little danger of his making many proselytes from the habits and comforts they 
had learned from the whites, to the hardships and privations of savagism, and 
no great harm, if he did. But his followers increased, until the British thought 
him worth corrupting, and found. him corruptible. I suppose his views were then 
changed, but his proceedings in consequence of them were after I left the admin- 
istration, and are therefore unknown to me ; nor have I ever been informed what 
were the particular acts on his part which produced an actual commencement of 
hostilities on ours. I have no doubt, however, that the subsequent proceedings 
are but a chapter apart, like that of Henry and Lord Liverpool, in the book of 
the Kings of England." , 

It is admitted that there is no doubt that the Shawnee Prophet really sought 
the good of his people, and believed in the beneficial effects of his doctrines, 
although it is claimed that his inquisition was shocking in its cruelty. 

TERRITORY ACQUIRED 

Through the Treaty of Paris the United States acquired the territory Great 
Britain claimed by right of discovery, and would have held notwithstanding the 
natural rights of those dispossessed. Upon the organization, in 1788 of this addi- 
tion to the L^nion, named the "Northwest Territory" Gen. Arthur St. Clair was 
appointed the first governor and was made commander-in-chief of the militia 
therein, to order, rule, and govern conformably to the ordinance of the 13th of 
July, 1787, entitled "An ordinance for the government of the territory of the 
United States northwest of the River Ohio." The commission took efifect the 
1st day of February. 1788, to continue three years, and he held the post until 
1802. In the beginning of his administration he met the tribes who complained 
that the whites were not willing to regard the Ohio River as a boundary, at Fort 
Harmar (now IMarietta) — erected in 1785-86 on the right bank of the Muskingum 
River at its junction with the Ohio, in honor of Gen. Josiah Harmar — in order 
to make treaties with them; and in his address he reminded them that they had } 
been allies of Great Britain in the Revolutionary war, and the loss of the lands 
was one of the consequences of defeat. The first division of the Northwest Ter- 
ritory was into Ohio and Indiana. Ohio was admitted into the Union and Michi- 
gan was created, and the boundaries of Michigan extended to take in a good 
part of North Dakota. 

DR.\WING THE LINE . I 

It was when the religious excitement attending the rise of the Shawnee 
Prophet was at its height, that Tecumseh took advantage of it to incite the Indians 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 109 

of the west and southwest to resist the further advance of the whites, drawing 
the line at the Ohio River, as later, Sitting Bull drew it at the Missouri. 

Messengers were sent to every Indian nation, and representatives of the 
various tribes of the northwest convened at the headquarters of the Shawnee 
Prophet at Greenville, Ohio, in order to learn the new doctrine and receive con- 
firmation of the belief in him through his dreams and repeated revelations and 
predictions ; among the latter the eclipse of the sun in the summer of 1806, which 
he claimed as a proof of his own supernatural powers. 

The movement was a revolt against the breaking down of old Indian customs 
and modes of life and the encroachment of the whites on their domain. 

HARRISON AND TECUMSEH 

Tecumseh and the Prophet held a tract of land on the Tippecanoe River, one 
of the tributaries of the Wabash River. To this place in the western part of 
what is now Indiana, Tecumseh and the Prophet, with their following, removed 
in the spring of 1808. They laid out a village known as the Prophet's Town, 
and attracted to this center a large number of northern Indians. 

General William Henry Harrison had served under Major General St. Clair 
and Gen. Anthony Wayne, and commanded Fort Washington (now Cincinnati) 
in 179s, and was secretary of the territory northwest of Ohio in 1797. In 1801, 
he was appointed governor of the new territory of Indiana, which comprised the 
present states of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, nearly all in the pos- 
session of the Indians, with whom as superintendent of Indian affairs, Harrison 
made treaties. The year of his appointment he went to the French Village of 
Vincennes, and in June, 1808, Tecumseh sent a deputation of Indians to him 
there with a message from the Prophet. This was followed in August, by a visit 
from the Prophet in person who was entertained at Vincennes two weeks ; Gen- 
eral Harrison forming a very favorable opinion of him and his abilities. The 
party carried a supply of provisions on their return to Tippecanoe. 

In Jime, 1810, Geneal Harrison sent two agents to Tippecanoe to more fully 
acquaint himself with the designs of the Prophet, and invited Tecumseh to meet 
him at Vincennes on August 15th, for the purpose of an interchange of friendly 
greetings, but Tecumseh came with an armed force of seventy warriors. They 
met in a grove of trees southwest of the Harrison mansion, in front of the 
porch, General Harrison on the porch, Chief Tecumseh in the grove. The grove 
and porch remained until 1840; the main house and grounds in good preservation 
until 1855. 

Tecumseh, in response to Harrison's assurance of friendly feeling, insisted 
on an exact interpretation of his words in language which implied that Harrison 
lied when he said the Government was friendly to the Indians, for it had cheated 
them and stolen their lands. This terminated the interview by Harrison's order, 
and Tecumseh and his warriors withdrew. 

In the following autumn, General Harrison was informed by a chief that the 
attitude of the Prophet was hostile, and Gen. William Clark, governor of Mis- 
souri, wrote to General Harrison that belts of wampum had been sent to the 
tribes west of the Mississippi, with an invitation to unite in a war against the 
United States. 



110 EARLY HISTORY OF X'ORTH DAKOTA 

BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE 

A ycai later, on the 26th of September, 181 1, General Harrison in command 
of a military expedition against the Tippecanoe confederacy, left Vincennes, 
with, as it proved, a fallacious hope, that the advance of the forces of the United 
States army would frighten the Indians into abandoning their designs against 
the government. 

He sent a message to the Prophet's Town, "directing the assembled Indians 
who were at Tippecanoe, to return to their tribes ; that stolen horses should be 
restored and murderers of while people be delivered up." 

The agent of the governor having delivered his message, returned to head- 
quarters, and on the 29th of October the army, numbering about nine hundred 
men, began their march ; on the night of the sth of November encamping within 
ten miles of "Prophet's Town," and meeting parties of Indians in the vicinity 
of the village. On the 6th of November two interpreters were directed to com- 
municate with some of the Indians, but they refused to hold communication with 
them except by gestures. The forces of General Harrison encamped for the night 
within a mile and a half of the town, sending forward a Hag of truce. 

The Indians at first refused to answer and tried to cut his messenger off from 
the rest of the army, but later sent out three Indians to inquire the reason for 
the advance. 

The messenger they said had gone another route, and they had missed him. 

General Harrison agreed to suspend hostilities until the next day, for pur- 
poses of treaty, and that night his army slept on their arms. 

Tecumseh was absent in the southwest and had left orders that war was to 
be avoided at all hazards until his return, but early in the evening the Indians 
held a council, and formed a plan, which during tlie night was changed, it was 
said through the deception of the Shawnee Prophet, who told them that one-half 
of Harrison's armv was dead, and the other half crazy, and before daylight the 
entire force of the Prophet's army was creeping through the grass upon the out- 
posts of General Harrison's camp. The men had not been roused for reveille 
an hour before daylight, when a single shot of a sentinel surprised l)y an Indian 
creeping uixtn him, broke the stillness. The wild yell of the Indian fired on was 
followed by the war whoop, and the entire Tippecanoe force was upon them, 
first overwhelming the guard, who fell back on the camp which was ])re]5ared 
for immediate action. 

The Prophet, discreetly taking his position on a hill in the rear, prophesied sue- j 
cess to the Indians who would be safe from all harm, spurring them to action by 
the shriek of his war song, and under this influence they made bold to fight in 
open battle, rushing right upon the bayonets in the hands of their antagonists, 
who with a last fierce charge put the Indians to flight, just as the dawn broke over 
the field of carnage. 

"Day glimmers on the dying and the dead. 

********* 

The war-horse masterless is on the earth. 
And that last gasp hath burst his bloody girth ! 
.'\nd near, yet quivering with what life remained 
The heel that urged him, and the hand that reined." 

— Bxron's Lara. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 111 

The loss of the United States forces in killed at the Battle of Tippecanoe, 
including those who died from their wotmds soon after, was 50, and the total loss 
in killed and wounded 188. The Indians left 38 dead on the field of battle, and 
with those they carried with them their loss must have amounted to an equal 
number. 

On the morning of the 8th of November, 181 1, "Prophet's Town"' was de- 
serted, and the United States troops moved slowly back to the fort at Vincennes. 
The Prophet's influence was overthrown, and the Universal Indian Confederacy 
was a dream of the past. 

General Harrison was promoted to major general, and fought the Battle of 
the Thames River, October 5, 1813, defeating the allied British and Indians, 
including Tecumseh, in the recovery of American territory. Tecumseh was 
killed. The Thames River flows between Lake Huron and Lake Erie, discharging 
into Lake St. Clair, and the battlefield was near the site of the present City of 
Chatham, Ontario. 

General Harrison died in the executive mansion at Washington, April 4, 1841, 
after an illness of eight days, at the close of a month's administration as Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

THE PASSING OF TENSKWATAWA 

Many Indians who after the defeat at Tippecanoe at first seemed inclined to 
treat, joined the British forces during the War of 1812, but at that period the 
Shawnee Prophet was shorn of his prestige, and faith in his doctrines had dimin- 
ished to almost complete extinction. 

In an official report, Lieut. General Prevost formally acknowledged the indebt- 
edness of the British "to Tecumseh and the Prophet." after the destruction of 
Detroit by their forces. 

Pensioned by the British government, under whose flag he had fought in that 
war, Tenskwatawa at its close became a resident of Canada, but in 1826, rejoined 
his tribe in Ohio, from thence removing to Missouri, and subsequently with his 
band to Kansas, where he died in 1837 in the month of November — which seemed 
to hold a strange fatality for him — and is buried in an unknown grave. 

To him might Joaquin Miller's counsel well apply : 

"Speak ill of him who will, he died. 
Say this much and be satisfied." 



"A CHAPTER APART" 

LORD LIVERPOOL VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH — SIR JAMES CRAIG H. W. RYLAND 

CAPT. JOHN HENRY ORDERS IN COUNCIL IMPRESSMENT OF SAILORS THE 

EMBARGO PRELIMINARY LETTERS — THE SECRET CORRESPONDENCE. 

The chapter apart involving "Henrj' and Lord Liverpool,'^ which President 
Jefferson places on a par with the "subsequent proceedings" of the Shawnee 
Prophet episode, left an ineffaceable impression upon the page of the political 
history of the century. 

Capt. John Henry, whose origin is subject of dispute, came from somewhere 
in the British Isles in 1793 to Philadelphia, where he became editorially con- 
nected with the public press. During the unpleasantness with France he served 
in the United States army as a captain of artillery, hence his title, and at its 
close once more took up the profession of journalism. Some of his articles in 
opposition to a republican form of government h^d a wide circulation, and 
showed a discrimination so keen, and a knowledge of the internal affairs of the 
republic so intimate and apparently so useful for shaping the policy of foreign 
powers that they aroused interest on both sides of the Atlantic, and were called 
to the attention of the chief actors in the stirring events immediately preceding 
the War of 1812. 

Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, the most prominent figure in the United States 
during his term of service, 1801-1809, was serving his two terms as President 
of the United States. In 1790 the country was divided into two political parties, 
the federalists and the republicans, the cabinet of President Washington being 
composed of warring elements. Thomas Jefferson, secretary of state, represented 
the republicans and was an unyielding advocate of state sovereignty and decen- 
tralization. Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury, charged by Jefferson 
with the desire of creating a monarchy in America, stood at the head of the 
federalists, and established the Bank of the United States against the protest of 
lefferson. and of Edmund Randolph, the attorney-general. In 1791 Jefferson 
carried on a correspondence with the British minister in relation to alleged 
violations of the treaty of peace with Great Britain. 

The year 1799 brought a change in public opinion in favor of the republican 
party, and Jefferson was elected President and was inaugurated March 4, 1801. 
Then followed the Louisiana Purchase, the exploration of the continent to the 
Pacific Ocean, and the re-election of Jefferson for the presidential term com- 
mencing March 4, 1805, the year of the Shawnee Prophet uprising. 

In a message to the Tenth Congress President Jefferson thus refers to our 
relations with the Indians: 

"With our Indian neighbors the public peace has been steadily maintained. 

112 





Ulysses S. Grant 



Rutherford B. Hayes 




James A. Garfield 





Chester A. Arthur Grover Cleveland 

PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 1869 TO 1889 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 113 

From a conviction that we consider them as a part of ourselves, and cherish 
with sincerity their rights and interests, the attachment of the Indian tribes is 
gaining strength daily, is extending from the nearer to the more remote, and will 
amply requite us for the justice and friendship practiced towards them. Hus- 
bandry and household manufacture are advancing among them, more rapidly 
with the southern than northern tribes, from circumstances of soil and climate ; 
and one of the two great divisions of the Cherokee Nation has now under 
consideration to solicit the friendship of the United States and to be identified 
with us in laws and government in such progressive manner as we shall think 
best." 

ORDERS IN COUNCIL 

In 1806, approaching the period of the Henry letters, the country became 
jjowerfully excited by the loss of its profitable foreign trade as a neutral through 
the British "orders in. council," and Napoleon Bonaparte's Berlin decree blockad- 
ing European ports, and still more by the right asserted by Great Britain of 
searching American vessels, which were boarded and the sailors impressed as 
subjects of the King. "A practice," as proclaimed by Henry Clay, "which can 
obtain countenance from no principle whatever, and to submit to which on our 
I^art would betray the most abject degradation." 

The ships and commerce of European nations had been destroyed by the 
wars being waged, and the United States being neutral profited by it, her vessels 
carrying from port to port the products of France and the dependent kingdoms, 
and, also, to those ports the manufactures of England. Great Britain and the 
United States held undisputed sway on the ocean, but American ships carrying 
to Europe the products of French colonies were often captured by British cruisers, 
and in May, 1806, several European ports under French control were by British 
orders in council declared in a state of blockade, though without being invested 
by a British fleet. United States vessels attempting to enter these ports were 
captured and condemned by the British. France and her allies also sufifered from 
these orders, and in November, 1806, Napoleon issued a decree at Berlin declaring 
the British Islands in a state of blockade, authorizing the capture of all neutral 
vessels attempting to enter these ports. Thus the commerce of the United 
States was made to sufifer by both nations. 

IMPRESSMENT OF SAILORS 

Great Britain had searched American vessels, and at the time of the war had 
taken from them by force every seaman supposed to be of British birth, to the 
number of more than si.x thousand men, and compelled them to enter the British 
navy to man their great fleet. The British claimed that the United States 
government "encouraged individuals to enter her marine, and become traitors 
to their country ; false certificates of citizenship," they declared, "and an ear-ring 
in the ear, made an Englishman an American, and the Yorkshire dialect or the 
west country pronunciation would contradict the solemn assertions that they 
were Americans." 

From 1803, to 181 1, British cruisers captured nine hundred American vessels, 
many of them laden with valuable cargoes. 



114 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

THE EMBARGO 

In June, 1807, occurred the attack on the V. S. frigate "Chesapeake," sailing 
out of Hampton Roads, by the British man-of-war "Leopard," in order to secure 
men which were claimed as British, but whom the commander of the "Chesapeake" 
refused to deHver, as he knew of none such being on board. 

The "Leopard" replied by firing on the "Chesapeake," which was unprepared 
for action, boarded her, impressed four sailors, and then abandoned her. Securing 
the sailors was evidently all the British commander desired, as the "Chesapeake" 
under her own commander put l)ack, much damaged, into Hampton Roads, and 
the incident was closed. It was this outrage, however, that roused the war 
power of the nation to retaliation, and amidst the wildest excitement President 
Jefferson issued a proclamation interdicting the harbors and waters of the 
United States to armed British vessels, and ordered the ports protected by a 
sufficient force. In consequence of the continued hostility- of France and Great 
Britain, the law passed by Congress in December, 1807, laying an indefinite 
embargo on the ports of the United States, and forbidding American vessels to 
leave those ports, although violently opposed by the federalist party, was an act 
of prudence in order to presen-e the seamen, ships and merchandise of the 
United States from danger. Taking into account the alternate decrees from the 
British government and from Bonaparte, there were sufficient orders in existence 
to render liable to capture all American vessels afloat, so that in searching the 
pages of history the reason for the embargo is plain, and President Jefferson's 
order, far from being an offense, was a wise measure for defense. 

One of the first acts of Congress under President Madison, in February. 
1809, was the repeal of the embargo, to take effect on the fourth of the ensuing 
March, at the same time prohibiting all intercourse with France and England 
until either nation should revoke her hostile edicts. 

At this period Jefferson retired from office, following the example of President 
Washington, and declining the nomination for a third term. 

Across the Atlantic, Robert Bank Jenkinson, second Earl of Liverpool, was, 
in 1809, secretary for war and the colonies, and held the British premiership 
from 1812 to 1827. 

Robert Stewart Castlereagh, a native of Ireland, was prominent in British 
politics in the years when Henry was writing. It was through his instrumentality 
that the act of union was passed, for which he was execrated by a large number 
of his countrymen. In 1805 he was secretar}' for war and for the colonies. 
Subsequently in the ministry of foreign affairs, he supported Lord Liverpool, 
who was always opposed to liberal ideas. In 181 2 he was a leading member 
of the British House of Commons. Sir James Craig was governor-general of 
Canada, and through him and his secretary, H. W. Ryland, the secret correspond- 
ence came about. On the iqth of June, 181 1, in the midst of the discontent 
among the Indians, he left Canada, qnd died in Januan,', 1812. 

PRELIMINARY LETTERS 

Between March and April. 1808, Captain Henry wrote six letters, the two latest 
from Montreal to H. W. Ryland, secretary of Sir Jnmes Craig, with ^hom he 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 115 

liad become intimate, and on the lOth of April Craig forwarded the first four 
to Castlereagh, and it has been claimed that he intimated that Henry was 
ignorant of the use to which his letters were put at this time. On May 5th the 
last two letters followed the first four to Castlereagh. 

These letters are calendared in Canadian archives. Their contents are made 
up of remarks on the state of public opinion, clippings from the newspapers 
sustaining his opinions, with allusions to the diplomatic mission of George 
Henry Rose, afterwards promoted and knighted, who was sent by the British 
government to Washington on a special commission respecting the affair of the 
"Chesapeake" and "Leopard" impressment case, and the close of the negotiations. 
Canadian historians believe it "impossible to draw even a shadow of wrong- 
doing from the proceedings." 

THE SECRET CORRESPONDENCE 

Apparently the object of the secret correspondence which followed was to 
obtain the most trustworthy information for the use of Sir James Craig and 
other representatives of Great Britain in this country concerning the internal 
affairs of the L^nion, the extent of the disaffection in New England toward the 
National Government caused by the embargo, which they had magnified to pro- 
portions agreeable to their own projects, but of the actual depth to which it 
had penetrated the body politic they were still in doubt. They desired to know 
what the policy of the United States would be on the inauguration of James 
Madison of Virginia, who was President from 1809 to 1817, the effect of the 
attitude taken by him on the public at large, and especially to gain a knowledge 
of the certain prospect of war between the United States and Great Britain, if 
such was imminent. 

This mission, at the stiggestion of Ryland, Captain Henry accepted and 
fulfilled, playing with distinction his mischievous part in precipitating the resort 
to arms by the L^nited States. He was given credentials which authorized him 
to receive any communications which it w^as desirable should reach the British 
government, the correspondence to be carried on in cipher. Ryland's letter in 
which the proposition was made gave, the correspondent reason to expect as 
compensation an advantageous position under the British government. 

Sir James Craig's instructions, "secret and confidential," the authenticity of 
which was afterwards vouched for by Ryland in a letter to the Earl of Liver- 
pool, were dated February 6, 1809. 

Captain Henry wrote fifteen letters between the 13th of February and the 
22d of May. 1809, when he was recalled to Canada. He passed three months 
in New England in that employment, reporting continually to Craig by letter, 
stating that according to his judgment the federalists, rather than submit to the 
continuance of the difficulties and duties to which they were subjected, would 
exert their influence to bring about a separation from the general Union, and in 
the event of war would establish a northern confederacy, in which Massachusetts 
would take the lead, and ally itself with Great Britain. War was not probable. 
Unfortunately names which might have added weight to the expression of his 
views were left out. 

Although this correspondence came to an end on the 22d day of May. 1809, 



116 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

and Craig did not resign as governor-general of Canada until June, 1811, no 
evidence can be found that he tiled any claim for services, but according to a 
letter of Ryland from London to Craig, Captain Henry had applied for the 
vacant oiSce of sheriff of Montreal, but no reference to it was made by Craig 
in his letter of June 4th, written a week before he left Quebec. Captain Henry 
was in London in 1810 and 181 1, and it is said applied to Lord Liverpool for a 
position, without result, and after waiting in vain until November, 181 1, he 
offered the entire correspondence to the President of the United States, James 
Madison, for a sum variously estimated at $10,000 and upwards, which was paid. 
President Madison sent the papers in a special message to Congress in March, 
1812, and they were referred to the committee on foreign affairs, and became 
the subject of a brief debate in Congress. Henry Clay of Kentucky declared in 
a speech before that body that there was "no doubt that the Indian tribes on the 
Wabash had been incited by the British, and what could be thought of an 
emissary having been sent to stir up civil war?" Publicity was thus given to an 
alleged attack upon the credit of the federal party which was accused of a design 
to destroy the Union, of which these papers were supposed to contain the proof, 
and the sensation produced was made use of to intensify the feeling of enmity 
towards Great Britain, until the true contents were made known, then the inci- 
dent was soon closed, as according to the terms of agreement Captain Henry 
was not to appear before the committee and had sailed in the same month for 
a permanent residence in France. 

On the British side the subject was brought up in the House of Lords, and 
Lord Liverpool's defense of Sir James Craig was the sum and substance of 
parliamentary proceedings. 

In this atmosphere, thick with internal conflict clouding the dawn of the 
republic, wherein immoderate expressions of sectional, individual, state and 
national rights were tempered by the noble ardor of patriotism, and a ray or 
two of the liberty that has since "enlightened the world," Henry sold his 
papers, and Madison made the most of them. 

The battle of Tippecanoe, which Canadian historians deny was fomented 
by British influence on the Northwestern Indians, was claimed in the debates 
of Congress to be the commencement of the War of 1812. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE WAR OF 1812 

THE STATE OF THE NAVY — THE SEA-FIGHT OF TRIPOLI— BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE 

BUILDING THE FLEET — THE VESSELS ENGAGFD THE ACTION THE SURRENDER 

THE OPERATIONS OF THE ARMY AFTER THE WAR THE ERIE SQUADRON'S SLOW 

DECLINE — THE TREATY OF GHENT. 

The Twelfth Congress of the United States, which met the year eighteen hun- 
dred and eleven, in November, declared war against Great Britain on the i8th of 
the following June, three months after the secret correspondence had been di- 
vulged, and the next day a proclamation was issued against a solemn protest by 
the federalist party, appeals being made to the patriotism of the people. Among 
the members who were detennined upon war were Henry Clay of Kentucky and 
John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. 

The committee on foreign relations at once proposed an arraignment of 
Great Britain for persevering in the enforcement of the "orders in council," 
refusing to neutralize the right of trading from one hostile port to another such 
port until France should abandon her restrictions on the introduction of British 
goods. France had suspended her decrees, but the grievance of impressment 
was constantly renewed by Great Britain. The committee recommended the 
enrollment of the militia, an increase in the number of regiments, and a call for 
volunteers, and reported resolutions for repairing the navy and for authorizing 
the arming of merchantmen in self-defense. New frigates were voted, and a loan 
of $11,000,000. Over one thousand men went out from one small fishing port, 
that of Marblehead, Mass., to help man the frigates in defense of the seas. Re- 
solves were passed in several of the legislatures, pledging the states to stand by 
the national government. 

THE STATE OF THE NAVY 

In the course of the year 1791, was completed the first census, or enumeration 
of the inhabitants of the United States. They amounted to 3,921,326, of which 
number 695,655 were slaves. 

The revenue, according to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, 
amounted to $4,771,000, the exports to about nineteen, and the imports to about 
twenty millions. 

A movement for building a navy having been inaugurated by Congress in 1794, 
against great opposition, by the passage of an act for building "four forty-fours 
and two thirty-six's;" in 1798, and the following year, during the administra- 

117 



118 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

tion of President John Adams, it assumed proportions of considerable import- 
ance and consisted of "six forty-fours, three thirty-six's, seven thirty-two's, and 
four fifteen to twenty smaller vessels of war." Its rapid construction compelled 
the admiration of the great powers, who, unaware of our resources and natural 
energy, wondered at so sudden a development of naval force. In the words of 
Samuel L. Knapp, the American editor of an English history of the United States 
by John Howard Hinton, published in 1846: 

"It seemed a dream to all the world, that a navy could rise upon the bosom 
of the ocean by the power of an infant nation, in so sudden a manner. The fabled 
pines of Mount Ida, were not formed into ships for the fugitive Trojans more 
rapidly than the oaks of our pasture-grounds and forests were thrown into naval 
batteries for the protection of commerce and our national dignity." 

Under the act of March 3, 1801, all the ships and other vessels belonging 
to the navy of the United States were sold, with the exception of thirteen, and 
those were most of them frigates, yet from this remnant was taken, in the sum- 
mer of that year a squadron of three frigates and a schooner, to which another 
was added early in the year following, to subdue the corsairs in the harbor bf 
Tripoli, whose reigning bashaw had declared war against the United States, and 
blockaded American commerce in the Mediterranean, because of the refusal of 
the United States to purchase immunity from capture and slavery by the cor- 
sairs, from the sovereignties of Morocco and Algiers. The first battle settled the 
supremacy of the United States over their foreign foes, "showing," it is recorded, 
"our superiority in naval tactics and gunnery over anything those pirates could 
produce." 

Peace was made on the 3d of June, 1805, on favorable terms. ".And then 
ended," says the historian Knapp, "a war which surprised the nations of Europe. 
They had often smiled to think the United States, a new-born nation, should be so 
presumptuous as to suppose that she could put down these predatory hordes, 
which had exacted tribute from all the commercial world from time immemorial, 
but it was done, and the lookers-on were astonished at the events as they trans- 
pired. The Pope, who had ever been deeply interested in all these pagan wars, 
or rather, all these wars against pagan powers, declared that the infant nation had 
done more in five years in checking the insolence of these infidels than all the 
nations of Europe for ages. The thunders of the Vatican had passed harmlessly 
over these pirates' heads through more than ten successors of St. Peter, until the 
United States had brought these infidels to terms by the absolute force of naval 
power. The head of the church saw that the people of a free nation had felt the 
degradation of paying tribute, and were determined to do so no longer than they 
could concentrate their energies, and direct them to bear upon the general foe of 
Christendom. The whole was indeed a wonder, that a nation that scarcely had 
risen into the great family of independent powers, should be able to grapple with, 
and in a measure subdue, these barbarians who had been for so long a time the 
scourge of mankind. We had not taken one power alone but all, from the .Atlan- 
tic to the Red Sea. The Doge (of Venice) who had been wedded to the Adriatic, 
and promised for the dower of his bride the dominion of the seas from the Delta 
of Egypt to the Straits of Gibraltar, had never in the pride of aristocratic strength 
claimed the honor of humbling the 'insolent Turk' to the extent that the United 
States had done in a few years. The aim of liberty, when properly directed, was 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 119 

always deadly to despotism. These exertions gave our flag a rank among the 
nations of Europe in these classical seas in which so great a proportion of all the 
sea-fights in the annals of man had taken place, from the early ages of fable and 
romance to modern times. The corsair, who had been the terror of the world, 
was now found a furious, but not unconquerable foe, and the barbarians, whose 
tremendous fierceness had been the tale of wonder in every age, seemed in our 
mode of warfare less dangerous than the aboriginals we had been contending 
with from the cradle of our nation." 

A SINGULAR PARALLEL 

In April, 1917, more than one hundred years after this mission was accom- 
plished, a reluctant nation was persuaded to train its guns once more on the east- 
ern hemisphere in order to hold fast the authority won in that ''elder day" to 
guarantee to every citizen of the United States his rights to "life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness" according to the Constitution of the United States on land 
and sea — close in shore, far out where the ocean liners plow their way through 
deep water, and where inland seas conceal the mine and submarine of the twentieth 
century pirate. 

This inherent force in a navy, so long inactive but now endowed with a cen- 
tury's ripeness, was fully roused to action by the atrocities of an irresponsible 
engine of destruction sent out in large numbers by the German government to prey 
upon commerce, and send to the bottom every vessel which dared to venture into 
its forbidden zones. They were called submarines and "U-boats" (undersea)' 
with a number attached, and types were common to all countries, but in their use 
by the German navy were far outdoing in rapacity the corsairs of Morocco and 
Algiers. They, also, had become the "terror of the world," and their barbarity 
reflected in the halls of Congress, in time, "sparred" the ship of state oft' on 
obstructive policy and developed a determined belligerence in an habitually easy- 
going and peace-loving people. One of these freebooters, more malevolent than 
others, was an armed sailing ship, which, keeping pace with modern invention, 
decoyed many passing steamships by means of the distress signal, "S. O. S." (a 
signal of distress with no words attached) sent to every wireless station, the run- 
ning up of false colors, and a stream of black smoke pouring out of her side as if 
on fire. The steamers left their course and hastened to her relief, only to be fired 
upon by hidden guns and sunk as fast as they appeared. Such dastardly deeds 
called for the punitive expedition of May, 191 7, concerning which the ambassa- 
dor of the United States in London, Dr. Walter Hines Page, is reported as hav- 
ing observed that "the only previous occasion on which the United States has 
intervened in war in the Old World, was at the time when they suppressed the 
Barbary pirates. It is singular that our present errand is so similar to that." 

THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE 

"Oh, for a son of bright-eyed glory. 

That sweeping o'er the chorded shell, 
Should in sublimest numbers tell 
The patriot hero's deathless story." 

— Ode by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 

Oxford, June 15, 1814. 



120 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 



Interminable discussions have arisen respecting every particular of this en- 
gagement, but only well-established facts are included in this sketch. 

When the United States Congress, in the autumn of 1811, authorized the 
building of new frigates, it became the initial movement in the action which for 
the first time placed an American squadron in opposition to the British in line 
of battle. Likewise, it was the first defeat Great Britain had suffered when all 
her force was either captured or destroyed. British domination was supreme on 
the Great Lakes, and it appeared to be the purpose of that government to assume 
control of the vast territory of the west, and divide its dominion from Canada to 
Mexico with the United States ; the Ohio and Mississippi rivers forming a 
natural boundary. The capture of the far-reaching Territory of Michigan had 
given them the advantage of the command of Lake Erie, and a strategic position 
of which it was the United States' design to relieve them. Losses had been 
sustained on land, but at sea the men whose rights had been violated had gained 
victories which soothed the wounded pride of the republic, whose navy Great 
Britain arrogantly boasted would soon be "swept from the ocean," for the War 
of 1812 was fought wherever the frontiers of the two countries met. It was 
carried down to the Gulf of Mexico, so as to cut off the United States from the 
west, on the sea coast all along the Atlantic shore from Maine to Mexico, and 
on the coast of the gulf, ending at New Orleans. To lay waste the whole 
American coast, on which they were then waging predatory warfare, from Maine 
to Georgia, was the avowed intention of the British. 

July, 1813, the navy consisted of the war vessels contained in the following 
list: 



Names Guns 

Constitution 44 

United States 44 

President , 44 

Macedonian 38 

Constellation 36 

Congress 36 

New York 36 

Essex 32 

Adams 32 

Boston 32 

General Pike 32 

Madison 28 

John Adams 20 

Louisiana 20 

Alert 18 

Argus 18 

Hornet 18 

Oneida 18 

Trouna 

Revenge* 16 

Syren 14 

Nonsuch 14 

Enterprise 14 

Carolina 14 

Comet* 14 

Duke of Gloucester 12 

President 12 

Patapsco* 12 



Names Guns 

Isaac Hull 10 

Conquest 8 

Hamilton 8 

Raven 8 

Scourge 6 

Governor Tompkins 6 

Scorpion 6 

Growler 5 

Fair American 4 

Viper 12 

Lady of the Lake 3 

Pert 3 

Julia 2 

Elizabeth 2 

Ontario I 

Adeline — 

Asp — 

Analostan — 

Despatch — 

Ferret — 

Neptune — 

Perseverance — 

Aetna bomb 

Mary bomb 

Spitfire l)omb 

Vengeance bomb 

Vesuvius bomb 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 121 

In addition there were a number of revenue cutters and about one hundred 
and seventy-eight gunboats. The vessels in italics had been captured from the 
British since the war began, and those with the asterisk were hired by the United 
States. Of this list the Constitution ("Old Ironsides"), launched at Boston, 
October 21, 1797, is now out of commission and preserved for exhibition as a 
relic in the Boston Navy Yard, and the Constellation, launched at Baltimore, 
Md., September 7, 1797, having been used for years as a training ship at Narra- 
gansett Bay naval station, in the State of Rhode Island, was in June, 1913, 
ordered to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, another of the country's proud possessions, 
to be equipped for service as an object lesson of illustrious record. 

BUILDING THE FLEET 

Lieut. Oliver Hazard Perry, then twenty-seven years of age, and living in 
Washington Square, Newport, R. I., was promoted to the rank of master- 
commandant, and sent by the navy department in the spring of 1813 to Lake 
Erie to command the fleet which had been ordered built there. He arrived at 
the Port of Erie, then known as Presque Isle, on March 27th. This was a 
trading post established by the French in 1749, as one of the chain of forts which 
was to unite the Canadas with Louisiana. It was a small village of a few 
log-houses besides the post, and a tavern, and contained about four hundred and 
fifty inhabitants. 

Perry found at Erie, Capt. David Dobbins, a sailing master in charge of 
naval afifairs on Lake Erie, also a shipwright from New York of the name of 
Noah. Brown, who was building the fleet. Captain Dobbins had sufliered the 
loss of a privately-owned vessel captured by the British. He superintended the 
building of six vessels for Perry. When the master-commandant arrived two 
brigs, the "Niagara" and the "Lawrence," were in process of construction at the 
mouth of Cascade Creek. Their frames were of oak, the decks of pine, the 
outside planking of oak. They were no feet in length, and had a breadth of 
beam of 29 feet. In the building of these crafts permanency was not consid- 
ered, for they were built of green timber cut in the forest there for the purpose 
of gaining that one battle, and if they lost it the vessels would be good enough to 
surrender. 

On the 9th of August, 1813, Lieut. Jesse D. Elliott arrived at Erie with 100 
men and was assigned to the "Niagara," and on the 12th the squadron ran the 
blockade by the British of the Port of Erie, with the object of joining forces 
with Gen. William Henry Harrison. On the 19th General Harrison and staff, 
with a number of Indian chiefs, arrived for the purpose of arranging a plan of 
action between the land and water forces, and it was decided to move upon the 
enemy as soon as the army was ready. 

THE VESSELS AND THEIR EQUIPMENT 

J. Fenimore Cooper, the novelist, who had exceptional and superior sources 
of information, and a personal acquaintance with the principal officers engaged 
in the battle, in his book, entitled "The Battle of Lake Erie," published in 1843, 
gives the English official account of the metal of both parties as follows: 



122 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

ENGLISH SQUADRON || 

Ship "Detroit" — 19 guns, 2 long 24's ; i long 18 on pivot; 6 long 12's; 8 long 
9's ; I 24-pound carronade ; i 18-pound carronade. 

Ship "Queen Charlotte" — 17 guns, i long 12, on pivot ; 2 long 9's ; 14 24-pound 1 
carronades. ' j 

Schooner "Lady Prevost" — 13 guns, i long 9, on pivot ; 2 long 6's ; 10 12-pound 
carronades. 

Brig "Hunter" — 10 guns, 4 long 6's; 2 long 4's; 2 long 2's ; 2 12-pound car- 
ronades. 

Sloop "Little Belt" — 3 guns, i long 12, on pivot ; 2 long 6's. 

Schooner "Chippevvay" — i gun, i long 9. 

Guns 63, metal; total, 831. Average as to guns, 13}^ pounds each gun. 

AMERICAN SQUADRON 

Brig "Lawrence" — 20 guns, 2 long 12's; 18 32-pound carronades. 

Brig "Niagara" — 20 guns, 2 long 12's; 18 32-pound carronades. 

Brig "Caledonia" — 3 guns, 2 long 24's ; i 32-pound carronade. 

Schooner "Ariel" — 4 guns, 4 long 12's on pivots. 

Schooner "Somers" — 2 guns, i long 24: i 32-pound carronade. 

Schooner "Porcupine" — i gun, i long 32, pivot. 

Schooner "Tigress" — i g^n, i long 32, pivot. 

Schooner "Scorpion" — 2 guns, i long 32, i 24-pound carronade on pivots. 

Sloop "Trippe"^ — i gun, i long 24, pivot. 

Guns 54, metal; total, 1,480. Average as to guns, 273% pounds each gun; or 
about double that of the British. 

"Such," writes Cooper, "is Captain (Robert H.) Barclay's account of the 
force. That he has not diminished his own is probable, as he has certainly not 
exaggerated the American. The 'Trippe' had a long 32, instead of the 24 he has 
given her, while the 'Scorpion' is believed to have had a long 24 and a 32-pound 
carronade. The remainder of the American metal is thought to be correctly 
given. * * * An officer of great experience, one friendly to Perry, who 
had seen much service in battle, visited the squadron on Lake Erie and Lake 
Qiamplain, before they were separated, and he told me that he thought the 
'Lawrence' and 'Niagara,' could they have got within effective distance immedi- 
ately, sufficient to have defeated all of Barclay's force united, especially with a stiff 
breeze." 

OFFICERS OF THE OPPOSING FLEETS 

The commodore of the British fleet was Sir James Lucas Yeo, and of the 
American fleet Isaac Chauncey, but there were no officers of that rank at the 
battle of Lake Erie. There were two commodores on the side of the British, 
Capt. R. H. Barclay and Capt. R. Finnis. opposed to two commanders on tlie 
American side, Lieut. O. H. Perry and Lieut. J. D. Elliott. 

Master-Commandant Oliver H. Perry was in command of the American 
s<|uadron. The other officers were : 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 123 

Brig "Lawrence" (flagship) — Lieut. John J. Yarnall. 

Brig "Niagara" — Master-Commandant Jesse D. ElHott. 

Brig "Caledonia" — Lieut. Daniel Turner. 

Schooner "Ariel" — Lieut. John H. Packett. 

Schooner "Tigress" — Lieut. Augustus H. N. Conckling. 

Sloop "Trippe" — Lieut. Thomas Holdup. 

Schooner "Porcupine" — Midshipman George Senate. 

Schooner "Scorpion" — Sailing-Master Stephen Champlin, who fired the first 
American shot. 

Schooner "Somers" — Sailing-Master Thomas C. Almy. 

The "Ohio," Capt. Daniel Dobbins, was not in the battle, having been sent to 
Erie for provisions and supplies, and was at Erie during the action. 

Capt. Robert Heriot Barclay, thirty-six years of age, commanding the British 
squadron, had fought with Nelson at Trafalgar, had lost one arm fighting the 
French, and was destined to lose the other in this battle. 

THE ACTION 

(From the American Point of View) 

The date of the battle is September lo, 1813. Perry, in his report, calls it a 
three hours' engagement. It was a cloudless autumn day with a light breeze 
blowing and a smooth sea. The ships of the British squadron had been freshly 
painted in the harbor of Maiden, and presented a gallant appearance as they 
swung into action, flying the red cross of St. George at the masthead. 

At 1 1 :45 A. M. the squadrons were a mile apart. The "Detroit" fired a 
24-pounder, the shot passing beyond the "Lawrence." At 12:15 Perry made sail 
with the "Lawrence," the "Ariel" and the "Scorpion," to get at close quarters and 
to engage the "Detroit," the "Hunter," the "Queen Charlotte" and the "Lady 
Prevost." There were but seven guns of long range on the American vessels to 
thirty-one on the British vessels. Perry's guns were of heavy calibre, Barclay's 
were of longer range. The roar of the guns was heard at Erie. 

The total number of men and boys engaged on the American side, according 
to the roll that drew prize money, was 532 ; of these 432 were on deck, one-fourth 
being regular naval seamen. The official report of the British shows that they 
had 450 men on deck, 150 of whom were picked men from the British navy, and 
240 soldiers from the Forty-first Regiment of the Line and the Newfoundland 
Rangers. 

At 2 130 the "Lawrence," the "Ariel" and the "Scorpion" had been in action two 
hours and forty-five minutes. 

A broadside from the enemy carried away the bowsprit and masts of the 
"Lawrence," riddled her hull and silenced her guns. Perry transferred his colors 
to the "Niagara," crossing the half-mile of intervening space in a small boat under 
a heavy fire, continued his firing from her decks, and signaling his fleet for close 
action, opened a cross fire upon the British flagship, which example was followed 
by the rest of the American squadron. 

At 2 :45 the British squadron's line was broken. According to John Chapman. 
a gunner on the "Queen Charlotte," by the carrying away of one of her sails she 
was at the mercy of the wind, and ran afoul of the "Detroit," becoming entangled 



124 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

with her. It is certain that the "Niagara" ran across the bow and stern of the 
two British ships, raking them fore and aft with her starboard broadside, and 
continuing her course, poured raking fires into the "Lady Prevost" and the "Hun- 
ter" with her port battery, and the remaining vessels of the American squadron 
followed his lead upon their British opponents for eight minutes. 

At 3 P. M., or fifteen minutes from the time the wind was fair for the attack, 
an officer appeared on the taffrail of the "Hunter," waving a white handkerchief 
as a signal of surrender. The "Chippeway" and the "Little Belt" crowded on 
every inch of canvas in the endeavor to escape, but were overhauled by the 
"Trippe" and the "Scorpion." 

(From the British Point of \'iew) 

The sources of information for the observations which follow are the letters 
of Lieut. Gen. Sir George Prevost, headquarters at Montreal, from whence 
dispatches containing reports were transmitted to Downing Street, London. 
Captain Barclay thus describes the opening of the battle from the time he 
perceived the American fleet in motion in Put-in Bay : 

"The wind, then at southwest and light, giving us the weather-gage, I bore up 
for them, in hopes of bringing them into action among the islands, but that 
intention was soon frustrated by the wind suddenly shifting to the southeast, 
which brought the enemy directly to windward. The line was formed according 
to a given plan, so that each ship might be supported against the superior force 
of the two brigs opposed to them. About lo the enemy had cleared the islands, 
and immediately bore up, under easy sail, in a line abreast, each brig being also 
supported by the small vessels. At 11:45 I commenced the action by firing a 
few long guns; about 12:15 the American commodore (reference to Perry), 
also supported by two schooners, one carrying four long 12-pounders, the other 
a long 32 and 24 pounder, came to close action with the 'Detroit' ; the other brig 
of the enemy, apparently destined to engage the 'Queen Charlotte,' supported in 
like manner by two schooners, kept so far to windward as to render the 'Queen 
Charlotte's' 24-pound carronades useless, while she was, with the 'Lady Prevost,* 
exposed to the heavy and destructive fire of the 'Caledonia' and four other schoon- 
ers armed with long and heavy guns like those I have already described. "■' * * 
The action continued with great fury until 2 :30, when I perceived my opponent 
drop astern, and a boat passing from him to the 'Niagara,' which vessel was at 
this time perfectly fresh. The American commander bore up, and supported by 
his small vessels, passed within pistol-shot, and took a raking position on our 
bow; nor could I prevent it, as the unfortunate situation of the 'Queen Charlotte* 
prevented us from wearing ; in attempting it we fell on board her. My gallant 
First Lieutenant Garland (J. Garland) was now mortally wounded, and myself 
so severely that I was obliged to quit the deck. * * * Never in any action 
was the loss (of officers) more severe; every officer commanding vessels, and 
their seconds, were either killed or wounded so severely as to leave the deck. 
The weather-gage gave the enemy a prodigious advantage, and enabled him to 
choose both his position and distance ; so that his long guns did great execution, 
while the carronades of the 'Queen Charlotte' and 'Lady Prevost' were prevented 
having much eflfect." 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 125 

In a letter of the officer who took command of the "Detroit'' on Captain Bar- 
clay's being wounded, he describes the deplorable situation of that ship, which 
"was unmanageable, every brace cut away, the mizzen topmast and gaff down, 
all the other masts badly wounded, not a stay left forward, hull shattered very 
much, a number of guns disabled, and the enemy's squadron raking both ships 
ahead and astern, and the squadron not in a situation to support ; in consequence 
of which the 'Detroit' struck; the 'Queen Charlotte' having previously done so." 

THE SURRENDER 

The defeated officers were received by Perry on the deck of the "Lawrence," 
to which his colors had been returned when the fleet ceased firing. It was at the 
close of this battle, in the first flush of victory, that Perry sent by Midshipman 
Dulany Forrest of the "Lawrence" the penciled dispatch to General Harrison: 
"We have met the enemy, and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner 
and one sloop," and to the secretary of the navy, William Jones of Pennsylvania, 
the following: 

"It has pleased the Almighty to give to the arms of the United States a signal 
victory over their enemies on the lake. The British squadron, consisting of two 
ships, two brigs, a schooner and a sloop, have this moment surrendered to the 
forces under my command, after sharp conflict." 

At 9 o'clock the United States fleet rendezvoused at Put-in-Bay, north and 
west of what is now the City of Sandusky, Ohio, on the west border of Lake 
Erie, which was one of the best harbors on the lake. The captured ships were 
valued at $225,000, and the victory established the supremacy of the United 
States on the lake, and by co-operation with General Harrison the release of 
Michigan from British occupation. 

" 'Twas a victory — yes; but it cost us dear; 
For that company's roll, when called at night, 
Of a hundred men who went into the fight, 
Numbered but twenty that answered 'Here !' " 

— Nathaniel Graham Shepard, "Roll Call." 

The loss to the United States in the battle of Lake Erie was twenty-seven 
dead, ninety-six wounded; of which number twenty-one were killed and sixty- 
two wounded on board the "Lawrence," whose whole complement of able-bodied 
men before the action was about one hundred. 

The total loss to the British was three officers, thirty-eight men killed, nine 
officers, eighty-five men wounded. Among the killed was Capt. R. Finnis of the 
"Queen Charlotte," who fell soon after the commencement of the action, "and with 
him," reports Captain Barclay — with both arms gone he could not have written — 
"fell my greatest support." 

The "Lawrence" carried the wounded of both fleets to Erie. The dead on 
board the vessels of both squadrons, with the e.xception of five officers, were 
buried at sea. Each form was sewed in a canvas shroud, with a cannonball for 
weight, and at the rising of the moon on a clear September evening, they were 
lowered over the side, describing circles as they sank slowly out of sight in the 
clear water. 

The British, with Tecumseh as ally, were at Maiden with 5,000 men. ready 



126 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

to cross the frontier, and September 23d Perry conveyed 1,200 troops up the 
lake and took possession of ^lalden. When the army in co-operation with the 
fleet reached that point, they found the fort had been evacuated by the British, 
and Tecumseh's Indians, who had retreated along the Thames River — which 
flows between Lake Huron and Lake Erie, discharging into Lake St. Clair — and 
Harrison followed in pursuit. 

On the 27th Perry reoccupied Detroit in conjunction with the army, and on 
the 2d of October Master-Commandant Elliott ascended the Thames River with 
the "Scorpion," the "Porcupine" and the "Tigress." On the 5th the battle of the 
Thames River was fought, with Harrison, who had been promoted to major 
general, in command. The allied British and Indians were defeated, and Tecuni- 
seh was killed. The battlefield was near the site of the present city of Qiatham, 
Ont. The British loss was nineteen regulars killed and fifty wounded, and 
about six hundred prisoners. The American loss in killed and wounded 
amounted to upwards of fifty. General Harrison died in the Executive Mansion 
at Washington, April 4, 1841, after an illness of eight days, at the close of a 
month's administration as President of the Ignited States. 

-M^TER THE W.\R 

American territory having been recovered, Perry's fleet rendezvoused at Erie, 
and the "Lawrence." the "Niagara," the "Ariel," the "Caledonia" and "Scorpion" 
were at the conclusion of the war dismantled and laid up in Erie and all subse- 
quently condemned and sold. The colors of the British "Detroit," "Lady Prevost," 
"Hunter," "Little Belt" and "Chippeway" were sent to the Naval Institute Build- 
ing at Annapolis. 

Master-Commandant Perry was promoted captain, his commission bearing 
date of the victory, and reaching him on the 29th of November, 1813. He con- 
tinued in active service until his death of fever in 1819, at the age of thirty-four. 

COLUMBI.A THE GEM OF THE OCEAN 

The United States, in the War of 1812, had only twenty ships equipped for 
warfare on the open sea, and of these three were antiquated, while England had 
between six and seven hundred armed vessels, many of them line-of-battle ships, 
of which the American navy was entirely destitute. It was Britain's proud 
boast that she not only "swept the surface of the vast Atlantic," but was "mistress 
of the seas;" yet when the opportunity came to prove it in this war her great 
ships had not men enough to work them or their guns. Out of fifteen sea com- 
bats with very nearly equal forces the United States was victorious in twelve, 
and more than five hundred prizes were made by the Americans during the first 
seven months of the war. In the War of 181 2, as in the recent war with Spain, 
American gunnery showed its superiority. Sir Howard Douglas, in his "Treatise 
on Gunnery," thus gives his reasons for British failure: "The danger of resting 
satisfied with superiority over a system so defective as that of our former oppo- 
nents has been made sufficiently evident. We became too confident by being 
feebly opposed; then slack in warlike exercise, by not being opposed at all; and 
lastly, in many cases inexpert for want of drill practice, and herein consisted 
the great disadvantage under which, without suspecting it, we entered in 1812 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 127 

with too great confidence into a war with a marine much more expert than that 
of any of our European enemies." 

It was not for any special regard for the United States that Napoleon parted 
with Louisiana, but after it had passed out of his hands, this was what he realized 
that he had done : "T have given,"' he said, "to England a maritime rival that 
will sooner or later humble her pride."' 

At least the outcome of the war was sufificiently convincing, for as President 
Woodrow Wilson says in his work, entitled "History of the American People" : 
"The war, itself, was no doubt sufficient guarantee that another for a like purpose 
would never be necessar)'." 

It was Britannia's ambition to "rule the waves," but Columbia became the 
"gem of the ocean." 

THE TREATY OF PEACE 

Early in the year 1814, the British government had indicated to the United 
States its willingness to end the war, which was costing the empire, it was esti- 
mated, ten million pounds sterling a year, w-ith no perceptible gain. The "orders 
in council" had been repealed five days after war was declared. In the three 
years' conflict, by the assertion of our rights on the high seas, our sailors had 
been freed from impressment, which had lasted more than twenty years, and the 
situation resolved itself into the defining of boundaries and the terms of peace 
greatly to be desired on both sides. 

Among the most salutary results of the war were the recognition by the world 
of the rights of the United States on the ocean and on the American continent, 
and owing to the necessity of doing without foreign importation, the introduction 
into this country of the power loom in order to supply the increasing demand for 
the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods. 

The treaty of peace was signed on Christmas eve, 1814, and two weeks after 
this important event, of which the country was as yet unaware, had taken place 
in Belgium, the War of 1812 was closed by a battle in the South. There the 
British sent Maj. Gen. Sir Edward M. Pakenham, brother-in-law of the Duke of 
Wellington, with 12,000 men, veterans for the most part from the battlefield of 
Spain, to take New Orleans, and on the 8th of January, 1815, the American gen- 
eral, Andrew- Jackson, received him at an entrenched line, which had been thrown 
up across a strip of land below the city, and repelled him, sending him back with 
a loss of 2,500 men. General Pakenham was killed. The American loss was eight 
killed and thirteen wounded. 

"Now fling them out to the breeze, — 

Shamrock, thistle and rose, — ■ 
And the star-spangled banner unfurl with these, 

A message to friends and foes. 

Wherever the sails of peace are seen and 

Wherever the war wind blows." 

— Alfred Austin, "To America." 

THE ERIE squadron's SLOW DECLINE 

The brig "Niagara" was never sunk, but simply settled in the mud. July 20, 
1820, Commander D. Deacon reported to the navy department from the Erie 



128 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

station : '"Heretofore the seamen and marines have been quartered on the brig 
'Niagara,' but she has become so rotten and leaky in her upper works and decks 
that I have been obliged to prepare a large workshop in the navy yard for their 
accommodation. * * * i have hauled the brig into the basin and moored her 
to the shore. She is so rotten that it will be impossible to caulk her for sinking." 

November 23, 1823, Master-Commandant George Budd reported: "The 
'Niagara' lies in the little bay, beached ; she lies in about four feet water. She is 
rotten and in a complete state of decay, totally unfit to be repaired. I would 
suggest the propriety of tearing her to pieces," 

This was not done, for in the reports of the secretary of the navy for 1824, 
and 1825, both the "Niagara" and "Lawrence" are mentioned as much decayed and 
sunk in the mud, and it is recommended that they be broken up or sold. They 
were sold August 6, 1835, at Erie. 

The "Lawrence" and "Niagara" both settled in Misery Bay, an arm of Presque 
Isle Bay, Erie harbor, the uppermost part of the "Lawrence" only two or three feet 
below the surface of the water. It was so near the surface that pieces were 
sawed off and made into souvenirs. The "Niagara" was si.x or seven feet below 
the surface. 

Thirty-five years after the last date given in the Government reports for the 
sale of the "Niagara" and "Lawrence," Leander Dobbins, son of Captain Dobbins, 
is known to have had an ownership in the "Lawrence," which seems to have 
claimed more public interest at that time as Perry's headquarters during the bat- 
tle; Perry, according to the detailed reports of both combatants, not having been 
more than a half hour on the "Niagara," and yet it is to her guns and the change 
of the wind in her sails to southeast that we owe the turn of the tide from defeat 
to victory. 

In 1876, the "Lawrence" was raised by Leander Dobbins and Thomas J. Viers 
of Erie, and taken to the Centennial E.xposition at Philadelphia, where it was 
housed, put on exhibition and entirely destroyed by fire. 

In the winter of 1912-13, amid snow and ice, the "Niagara" was lifted from 
Misery Bay, reb^iilt and rerigged for e.xhibition at the celebration of the centen- 
nial of the battle of Lake Erie. It was launched June 7, 1913, and towed across 
the bay about lyi miles, where it was moored at the foot of Sassafras Street in 
the city of Erie. An eye-witness says : "The ribs seemed to be in a good state 
of preservation, and were used in the rebuilt vessel. Some of the inside planking 
of the original Niagara was also used. Under the deck floor all around the vessel 
the original planks were used, three in width, each about twelve inches wide." 
* On the Fourth of July, 191 3, the celebration of the centennial of Perry's vic- 
tory, the commemoration of 100 years of peace between the two English-speaking 
nations, and the campaign of Gen. William Henry Harrison, was opened in 
Put-in-Bay by the firing of a salute at dawn. The graves of the officers, both 
British and American, who are buried on the island were decorated with flowers, 
and the cornerstone of a monument to be erected there was laid by the Grand 
Lodge of Ohio Masons. Addresses were made by Col. Henry Watterson of the 
Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal and by ex-Senator John M. Whitehead of 
Wisconsin. Referring to the dying words of another naval hero, for whom the 
"Lawrence" was named, which Perry nailed to his masthead, Colonel Watterson, 
at the close of his peroration, proposed the following sentiment : "On land and 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 129 

sea, in glory and in peril, whenever the republic rides the waves too proudly, or 
is threatened by foes within or without, let us take them as a message from 
heaven and pass them on to our neighbors and teach them to our children, 'Don't 
give up the ship.' " 

SONGS OF THE ALLIES 

It is well known that the "Star-Spangled Banner," now translated into French 
and sung in the French trenches and wherever the Marseillaise is sung, was an 
incident of the War of 1S12, written during the Battle of Fort McHenry. 

THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER 

Words by Francis Scott Key (1780-1848). Music by John Stafford Smith (1750-1836). 

Oh ! say, can you see by the dawn's early light, 

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? 

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, 
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? 

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air. 

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. 

Oh ! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave, 

O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave? 

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep, 
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes. 

What is that which the breeze o'er the towering steep. 

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? .: 

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam. 

In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream ; 

'Tis the star-spangled banner. Oh, long may it wave 

O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave. 

Oh ! thus be it ever when free men shall stand 

Between their loved homes and the war's desolation ; 

Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land 

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! 

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just. 

And this be our motto, "In God is our trust !" 

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave 

O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave! 

THE MARSEILLAISE 

[Translated from the French] 
Words and music by Rouget de L'isle. 

Ye sons of France, awake to glory, 

The sun of victory soon will rise; 

Though the tyrant's standard all gory 

Is upreared in pride to the skies. 

Is upreared in pride to the skies I 

Do ye not hear in every village 

Fierce soldiers who spread war's alarms? 

Who even in our sheltering arms 

Slay our sons and give our homes to pillage ! 



130 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

And would that horde of slavish minions 
Conspire our freedom to o'erthrow ? 
Say for whom those gyves were intended 
Which their craft prepared long ago, 
Which their craft prepared long ago? 
What righteous rage now should excite us? 
For Frenchmen what shame is so great? 
They even dare to meditate — 
To enslave, but thus they'll unite us ! 

Chorus 

To arms, — ye brave, to arms ! 

We'll form battalions strong ! 

March on ! March on ! Their blood impure 

Shall bathe our thresholds soon ! 

TREATY OF PEACE AND AMITY — ^TREATY OF GHENT 

"Concluded at Ghent, December 24, 1814; ratification advised by the Senate, 
February 16, 1815; ratified by the President, February 17, 1815; ratifications 
exchanged, February 17, 1815; proclaimed February 18, 1815." 

This treaty was composed of a preamble and eleven articles. Five of these 
articles, relating to boundaries, were left to the decision of commissioners, who 
disagreed, and they were finally determined by the convention of August 9, 1842, 
which concluded the Webster- Ashburton Treaty — Daniel Webster, Secretary of 
State, for the United States, and Alexander, Lord Ashburton, Her Majesty's 
Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States. 

The remaining articles were on the declaration of peace, the cessation of hos- 
tilities, the release of prisoners, cessation of hostilities witli Indians, abolition 
of the slave trade, and ratification. 

The preamble sets forth that : 

"His Britannic Majesty and the l.'nited .States of America, desirous of ter- 
minating the war, which has unhappily subsisted between the two countries, and 
of restoring, upon principles of perfect reciprocity, peace, friendship and good 
understanding between them, have for that purpose, appointed these respective 
plenipotentiaries, that is to say : 

"His Britannic Majesty, on his part, has appointed the Rt. Hon. James Lord 
Gambier. late admiral of the White, now admiral of the Red .Squadron of His 
Majesty's fleet; Henry Goulburn, Esq.. a member of the Imperial Parliament, 
and under secretary of state, and William Adams. Esq., doctor of civil laws; 
and the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of 
the Senate thereof, has appointed John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry 
Clay, Jonathan Russell and .-Mbert Gallatin, citizens of the United States, who, 
after a reciprocal communication of their respective full powers, have agreed 
upon the following articles: 

ARTICLE I I' 

"There shall be a firm and universal peace between His Britannic Majesty 
and the United States, and between their respective countries, territories, cities, 





Benjamin Harrison 



William SIcKinley 




Theodore Roosevelt 




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William H. Taft 



Woodvow \\'ilson 



PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 1889 TO THE PRESENT, 1918, WITH 
THE EXCEPTION OF CLEVELAND FROM 1893 TO 1897 (In preceding group) 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 131 

towns and people, of every degree, Avithout exception of places or persons. All 
hostilities, both by sea and land, shall cease as soon as this treaty shall have been 
ratified by both parties, as hereinafter mentioned. All territory, places and pos- 
sessions whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the war, or 
which may be taken after the signing of this treaty, excepting only the islands 
hereinafter mentioned, shall be restored without delay, and without causing 
any destruction or carrying away any of the artiller)^ or other property originally 
captured in the said forts or places, and which shall remain therein upon the 
exchange of the ratifications of this treaty, or any slaves or other private property. 
And all archives, records, deeds and papers, either of a public nature or belonging 
to private persons, which in the course of the war may have fallen into the hands 
of the officers of either party, shall be, as far as may be practicable forthwith 
restored and delivered to the proper authorities and persons to whom they 
respectively belong. Such of the islands in the Bay of Passamaquoddy as are 
claimed by both parties shall remain in the possession of the party in whose occu- 
pation they may be at the time of the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty, 
until the decision respecting the title to the said islands shall have been made in 
conformity with the fourth article of this treaty. No disposition made by this 
treaty as to such possession of the islands and territories claimed by both parties 
shall in any manner whatever be construed to affect the right of either. 

.ARTICLE II 

"Immediately after the ratification of this treaty by both parties, as hereinafter 
mentioned, orders shall be sent to the armies, squadrons, officers, subjects and 
citizens of the two powers to cease from all hostilities. And to prevent all causes 
of complaint which might arise on account of the prizes which may be taken at 
sea after the said ratifications of this treaty, it is reciprocally agreed that all 
vessels and effects which may be taken after the space of twelve days from the 
said ratifications, upon all parts of the coast of North America from the latitude 
of twenty-three degrees north to the latitude of fifty degrees north, and as far 
eastward in the Atlantic Ocean as the thirty-sixth degree of west longitude from 
the meridian of Greenwich, shall be restored on each side ; that the time shall be 
thirty days in all other parts of the Atlantic Ocean north of the equinoctial line 
or equator, and the same time for the British and Irish channels, for the Gulf 
of Mexico and all parts of the West Indies : forty days for the North seas, for 
the Baltic and for all parts of the Mediterranean ; sixty days for the Atlantic 
Ocean south of the equator, as far as the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope : 
ninety days for every other part of the world south of the equator, and 120 days 
for all other parts of the world without exception. 

.ARTICLE III 

"All prisoners of war taken on either side, as well by land as by sea, shall be 
restored as soon as practicable after the ratifications of this treaty, as hereinafter 
mentioned, on their paying the debts which they have contracted during their 
captivity. The two contracting parties respectively engage to discharge in specie 
the advances which may have been made by the other for the sustenance and 
maintenance of such prisoners. 



132 - EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

ARTICLE IX 

"The United States of America engage to put an end, immediately after the 
ratifications of the present treaty, to hostilities with all the tribes or nations of 
Indians with whom they may be at war at the time of such ratifications, and forth- 
with to restore to such tribes or nations, respectively, all the possessions, rights 
and privileges which they may have enjoyed or been entitled to in 1811, previous 
to such hostilities ; provided always that such tribes or nations shall agree to 
desist from all hostilities against the United States of America, their citizens 
and subjects, upon the ratification of the present treaty being notified to such 
tribes or nations, and shall so desist accordingly. And His Britannic Majesty 
engages on his part to put an end, immediately after the ratifications of the 
present treaty, to hostilities with all the tribes or nations of Indians with whom 
he may be at war at the time of such ratifications, and forthwith to restore to 
such tribes or nations, respectively, all the possessions, rights and privileges 
which they may have enjoyed or been entitled to in 1811, previous to such hostili- 
ties. Provided always that such tribes or nations shall agree to desist from all 
hostilities against His Britannic Majesty, and his subjects, upon the ratifications 
of the present treaty being notified to such tribes or nations, and shall so desist 
accordingly." 

Relative to the African slave trade Article X has the following: 

"Whereas, the traffic in slaves is irreconcilable with the principles of human- 
ity and justice, and whereas, both His Majesty and the United States are desirous 
of continuing their efforts to promote its entire abolition, it is hereby agreed that 
both the contracting parties shall use their best endeavors to accomplish so 
desirable an object." 

The question assumed a more practical form in Article VIII of the Webster- 
Ashburton Treaty, which reads as follows : 

"The parties mutually stipulate that each shall prepare, equip and maintain 
in service on the coast of Africa a sufficient and adequate squadron or naval force 
of vessels of suitable numbers and descriptions, to carry in all not less than eighty 
guns, to enforce, separately and respectively, the laws, rights and obligations of 
each of the two countries for the suppression of the slave trade, the said squad- 
rons to be independent of each other, but the two governments stipulating, never- 
theless, to give such orders to the officers commanding their respective forces as 
shall enable them most eflfectively to act in concert and co-operation upon mutual 
consultation, as exigencies may arise, for the attainment of the true object of 
this article, copies of all such orders to be communicated by each Government to 
the other respectively." 

Articles relating to the suppression of this traffic have been incorporated in 
the treaties with Great Britain of 1862, 1863, 1870 and 1890, the last named 
calling a convention at Brussels of all the great powers, "In the name of God 
Almighty." 

The Treaty of Ghent closes with the following article: 

ARTICLE XI 

"This treaty, when the same shall have been ratified on both sides, without 
alteration by either of the contracting parties, and the ratifications mutually 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 13.3 

exchanged, shall be binding on both parties, and the ratifications shall be 
exchanged at Washington, in the space of four months from this day, or sooner 
if practicable. In faith whereof we, the respective plenipotentiaries, have signed 
this treaty, and have thereunto affixed our seals. Done, in triplicate, at Ghent, 
the 24th day of December, 1814." 

Signed : Gambler, Henry Goulburn, William Adams, John Ouincy Adams. 
J. A. Bayard, H. Clay, Jonathan Russell, Albert Gallatin. 

THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY 

Slavery had become a menace to the free people of the South, and the desire 
for its abolition early became manifest, the leading spirits among real lovers 
of mankind, both North and South, becoming outspoken in its favor. As early 
as 1760, the Quakers (more properly the Society of Friends) made the traffic a 
matter of church discipline. Previous to 1774, both Virginia and Massachusetts 
had taken action looking to abolition, and Benjamin Franklin was president of the 
first society established for the promotion of the abolition of slavery, in 1775. In 
1777, Vermont adopted the constitution abolishing slavery, Massachusetts adopted 
a like constitution in 1780, and New Hampshire in 1783. 

Gradual abolition was secured in Pennsylvania in 1780, in Rhode Island and 
Connecticut in 1784, in New York in 1799, and in New Jersey in 1804. The ordi- 
nance of 1787 made the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and 
part of Minnesota, free. Congress passed an act in 1807, the year slavery was 
abolished in Great Britain, to take effect January i, 1808, abolishing the slave 
trade. Slavery was abolished in Iowa, Oregon, Kansas, Nebraska, and parts of 
Colorado and Minnesota, by the Missouri Compromise (1821), rejected by the 
Dred Scott decision (1856), but embodied in the constitutions of these states when 
admitted into the Union. When this compromise was adopted, February 27, 1821, 
the discussion preceding the adoption was exceedingly bitter, accompanied by 
threats of bloodshed and secession participated in by representatives from Geor- 
gia, Mississippi, Kentucky and Virginia ; none being more bitter than the 
remarks of Representative Robert R. Reid and Thomas W. Cobb, of Georgia. The 
best illustration of the southern mind of that period, may be found in the speech 
of Robert Toombs, of Georgia, in the United States Senate, January 7, 1861, who 
did not occupy his seat in the Senate after February 4, 1861. He was formally 
expelled March 14, 1861. 

Much of the discussion in relation to the Missouri Compromise was in com- 
mittee of the whole, and no record is available of the remarks. This is especially 
true of the remarks of Mr. Cobb to one of the Georgia members, that "a fire has 
been kindled which will require seas of blood to put out," and time has shown 
that it was quenched by the blood shed in the Civil war. 

EXTRACT FROM REID'S SPEECH, FEBRUARY, 1 82 1 

"But let gentlemen beware ! Assume the Mississippi as the boundary, say, to 
the smiling coteaux beyond its waters, no slave shall approach, and you give a 
new character to its inhabitants totally distinct from that which shall belong to 
the people thronging on the east of your limits. You implant diversity of pursuit. 



134 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

hostility of feeling, envy, hatred, and bitter reproaches. * * * Sir, the firebrand, 
which is now cast into your society, will require blood, and the blood of free 
men for its quenching. Your Union shall tremble as under the force of an earth- 
quake. While you incautiously pull down a constitutional barrier, you make way 
for the dark and tumultuous and overwhelming waters of desolation. If you sow 
the winds, you must reap the whirlwind." 

After 1821, there were forty years of bitter discussion in Congress, which had 
its legitimate ending in the final abolition of slavery. 

LUNUY, GARRISON AND THE "LIBERATOR" 

The antislavery movement headed by William Lloyd Garrison, who had been 
associated in Baltimore with Benjamin Lundy, the earliest promoter of freedom 
to the slave in the United States, began to exert its force, and in 1832, the New 
England Antislavery Society was fomied. On December 6, 1847, Abraham Lincoln 
took his seat in the Thirtieth Congress as a member from the state of Illinois, and 
began his work for the emancipation of slaves in the District of Columbia, which 
v\'as consummated in 1862, and recognized the two principles of colonization and 
compensation. In 1865, their work having been accomplished. Garrison's great 
paper, the Liberator, and the emancipation societies for which it was the voice, 
ceased to exist. 

Slavery was finally abolished from all the territory of the United States by the 
proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, January i, 1863, and the ratification 
of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution by the several 
states as proposed by Congress ; the Fifteenth Amendment being proposed to the 
legislatures by the Fortieth Congress on February 27, 1869, and declared in a 
proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated March 30, 1870, to have been ratified 
by the constitutional number of states and to have become valid, to all intents and 
purposes, as part of the Constitution of the U^nited States. 

COLONIZATION OF THE BLACKS 

President Thomas JefTerson, ardently opposed to slavery, in 1801 took an 
active interest in the colonization of the free blacks, and in 1816, the National 
Colonization Society, heartily encouraged by the leading spirits of the South 
and the \'irginia Legislature of that year, was organized, and resulted in the 
Republic of Liberia, in Africa. 

SLAVERY 

In concluding, some general facts in relation to slavery may be of interest. 
The first attempt to establish a trading post in the Dakotas (1726) was for the 
purpose of securing slaves by the purchase of captives from warring tribes or by 
kidnapping for supplying the market in the West Indies, following the precedents 
established in Africa. 

Pierre Bonga, one of Henry's Brigade, which instituted the first permanent 
settlement in Dakota Territory, was a slave brought from the West Indies. York, 
Captain Clark's slave, was the most attractive feature in the Lewis & Clark 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 135 

Expedition. Both left descendents in North Dakota. Other slaves were brought 
into the Dakotas by army officers. John Tanner, the white captive, was a slave 
among the Indians and sold as such from time to time, and there was some traffic 
in captives sold as slaves by the Indians. The system of concracts with the 
voyageurs resulted in virtual slavery in many cases through the system of fines 
and advances made by the fur companies. 

The creation of the Territory of Dakota was made possible in 1861 by the 
withdrawal of the representatives from the slave-holding states from Congress. 

Prior to A. D. 1441 slavery, which had existed in some form from the 
beginning of human history, had generally been confined to captives in war. 
Tribes and even nations were subjugated or carried away captive. Such was 
the case with the Israelites, who, in their distress, "hung their harps on the 
willows and sat down by the rivers of Babylon and wept." The time they were 
carried away into Egypt was recognized as an epoch from which time was 
reckoned. Captives were generally put on public works. The temple at Jeru- 
salem was builded by captives and their childreil? Captivity was recognized by 
the prophets as the just reward of iniquity; unfortunates were sometimes sold 
into captivity for crime or debt, but not on account of color. 

In A. D. 1441 two captains of vessels sailing under the flag of Portugal seized 
a number of Moors who were taken to Portugal, but were allowed to ransom 
themselves, and in doing so included ten black slaves in the price paid. In 1445 
four negroes were made captive and taken to Portugal, and in 1448 a factory or 
trading post was established on the small island Arguin, from which several 
hundred black people, taken captive in tribal wars or kidnapped, were obtained 
by their agents and sent to Portugal each year, while slaves secured by other 
traders were taken to Tunis and Sicily. 

In 1492 the trade of the Portugal company had fallen to 300, but the dis- 
covery of America added a new impetus to the trade in human beings, in which 
Columbus took an active part, the .Spanish having engaged in the trade, sending 
large numbers of Indians to Spain and to the West Indies. Preference, however, 
was given to the negro slaves, regarded more valuable than the Indians in a 
ratio of four to one. 

In 1500 Gasper Cortereal, in the service of the King of Portugal, seized fifty 
natives on the coast of Labrador, carried them to Portugal and sold them as 
slaves. Returning the next year for more captives he is supposed to have been 
lost at sea. 

In 1520 Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, a Spanish explorer, enticed a large num- 
ber of Indians from the coast of South Carolina on board his ships and sailed 
away with them as captives. Two of his vessels were lost at sea and most of 
the remaining captives died. He returned five years later when he met with 
fierce opposition by the natives. His best ship ran aground and most of the 
crew were killed by the Indians. 

Giovanni da Verrazzano. who visited the coast in 1524, kidnapped an Indian 
boy and carried him away to France. He tried to capture an eighteen-year-old 
girl, but she made such an outcry they feared to accomplish this purpose, being 
some distance from their vessel. 

In 1 580 De Soto, lured into the forest in a search. for gold and populous 
and wealthy villages, forced his captives to carry supplies on his long marches. 



136 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

striking terror into the hearts of the Indians visited by his extreme cruelty. At 
the battle of Mobile, where he suffered so severely, his captives were released 
by the enemy and joined in a battle which nearly ruined his expedition. 

The first negro slaves were landed in England in 1553, and in 1562 that 
country engaged in the slave traffic. Sir John Hawkins is credited with begin- 
ning the traffic, Queen Elizabeth being a sharer in the profits. Four English 
companies were chartered for the slave trade, Charles II and James II being 
members of the fourth company, with the Duke of York and James II at the 
head. Later the Royal African Company received aid from Parliament, their 
companies furnishing slaves to America, and in 1713 the privilege of supplying 
them to the Spanish colonies was secured to the English for thirty years, during 
which period 144,000 were supplied under their contract. 

The French and Dutch were also engaged in this traffic. In 1605 George 
Weymouth, an English kidnapper, made a trip to the Maine coast for the purpose 
of trade and captured and carried to England five Indians whom he gave to his 
friends as slaves. 

In 1619 a Dutch man-o'-war sold twenty negroes to the colony at James- 
town, but they were carried on the roll as servants, and probably treated the 
same as the white indentured servants who constituted a considerable portion 
of the colony. The same year the King sent over 100 convicts from English 
prisons, to be sold as servants to the colonists, and this system was pursued for 
many years against the protests of the people of the colony. 

In 1624-5 there were in the colony thirty-three Africans who were listed 
as servants. The first servant for life in this colony, of which there is any 
definite account, was John Punch, a negro. He had run away with two white 
servants. They were all caught. The period of servitude of the whites was 
extended four years as punishment, but John Punch was sentenced to servitude 
for life. Slavery was made hereditary by law in Virginia in 1662, when it was 
provided that the issue from the mother should follow her condition of servitude. 

Slavery had existed in the English settlements in the Carolinas from the 
beginning of the life of these colonies, and in 1672 Sir John Yeomans, governor 
of South Carolina, brought several negro slaves from the Barbadoes. Slavery 
prevailed in all of the colonies, and all of them made a practice of buying and 
selling captives taken in war with the Indians. Those for whom there was a 
market were sent to the West Indies and the others parceled out among the 
colonists for such use as they were fitted. 

The Carolinas in 1702-1708 sent three expeditions against the Indians warring 
against them and almost the entire population of seven large villages were made 
captive and sold as slaves. It was a common practice to kidnap the children 
of the Tuscaroras and sell them into slavery, and this was the cause of the 
Tuscarora war of 1711-13, as given in detail in Chapter I. 

So common had been the practice of sending Indians to Pennsylvania to be 
sold as slaves that the provincial council of that colony in 1705 enacted that 
"Whereas the importation of Indian slaves from Carolina or other places hath 
been observ-ed to give the Indians of this province some umbrage for suspicion 
and dissatisfaction, such importation be prohibited I\Iarch 25, 1706." 

June 7, 1712, an act was passed by this council forbidding the importation 
of Indians for slaves, but provided for the sale of those which had been imported 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 137 

for that purpose. The prisoners taken by Col. John Barnwell in his campaign 
against the Indians in the Tu'scarora war were advertised to be sold in the 
Massachusetts and other colonies, and to take in these captives Pennsylvania 
appears to have adopted this later prohibitory provision. 

It was in 1712, also, that Antoine de Crozat had the privilege of sending a ship, 
once a year, to Africa for a cargo of slaves to work in mines in Louisiana, one- 
fourth of the profits to go to King Louis XIV. 

The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 caused a great increase in the demand 
for slaves in that portion of the South adapted to the growth of cotton. 

Previous to 1776, 300,000 negro slaves had been imported by the colonies. 
At the first census, in 1790, the slaves in the United States were distributed as 
follows : 

New Hampshire 158 

Vermont 17 

Rhode Island 952 

Connecticut 2,350 

Massachusetts none 

New York 21,324 

New Jersey , 11 ,423 

Pennsylvania 3-737 

Maryland 103,036 

Virginia 293,427 

North Carolina 100,572 

South Carolina 107,094 

Georgia 29,264 

Kentucky 1 1,830 

Tennessee 3.417 

Total 697,897 

The number increased in 1806 to 893,041, in 1810 to 1,191,364, and in like 
proportion until i860, when the slaves in the United States numbered 3,953,760, 
and the total number of blacks who had been bought or kidnapped and carried" 
away from Africa had reached the enormous figure of 40,000,000, and the 
trade was still being carried on. 

As early as 1776 slavery had become a menace and it was resolved that year 
by the Continental Congress that no more slaves should be imported into the 
colonies, but when the Constitution was adopted action was postponed on this 
question. 

July 21, 1787, however, Congress passed by a unanimous vote a bill introduced 
by Nathan Dane forbidding involuntary servitude in that portion of, the L^nited 
States constituting the Northwest Territory. 

Notwithstanding the efforts put forward in the Treaty of Ghent, the Webster- 
Ashburton Treaty, and other strenuous negotiations that followed, under the exist- 
ing treaties and agreements with France and Spain a certain number of cruisers 
were being maintained on the east and west coasts of Africa, and in the West 
Indies, for the suppression of the trade which under the laws of these cottntries 



138 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

was then recognized as piracy. France and Spain having become parties to 
this compact each country maintained its separate squadron. 

In January, 1915, Capt. Owen Sheer W'illey, who was an officer on one of the 
vessels of the United States patrol, read a paper before Burnside Post, Grand 
Army of the Republic, Washington, D. C, from which the following facts have 
been gleaned : 

"In 1858, the United States brig of war 'Dolphin,' commanded by Lieut. 
John A. Moffitt, captured off the Island of Cuba the American brig 'Echo' of 
Boston from the west coast of Africa with a large cargo of African slaves. 
The prize was taken to Charleston, but in view of the hostility there to inter- 
ference with the slave trade, was sent to New York, where she was sold and the 
captives returned to Liberia. 

"In December, 1858, the 'Wanderer' landed a cargo of sla\es on the coast of 
Georgia, followed by another the next year, and a third attempt was made in 
i860, but it was reported and believed at the time that she landed her cargo near 
San Antonio, Cuba. She was seized by the United States and condemned 
and sold. 

"Early in the spring of i860 the American bark "William' of New York was 
captured by the 'Wyandotte' of the United States patrol with 680 slaves on board 
from the west coast of Africa for the trade in the United States. Every vessel 
passing was boarded by the patrol, sometimes as many as forty or fifty vessels 
a day. Among the slavers captured that spring were the American bark 'Wild- 
fire' of New York, having on board 520 slaves, captured by the 'Mohawk' and 
taken to Key West, and the French bark 'Bogata' with 411 slaves. This capture 
w-as by the 'Crusader,' with which Captain Willey was then serving." 

Under our laws slave-trading was piracy, but tlie only person convicted and 
executed for this crime was Nathaniel Gordon, who, in November, 1861, was 
convicted and executed in the State of New York. In other cases the officers 
and crews escaped through being used as witnesses in proceedings against the 
vessels which were sold, and in some instances returned to the slave trade, as 
was the case with the "Wanderer." 

Captain Willey described the hold of the ordinary slaver, where the captives 
were confined during the voyage of several weeks across the seas, as a room 
80 or 90 feet in length, 33 or 40 feet in width and 6 or 7 feet in height. The 
floor space was largely occupied by water barrels on which planks were laid, 
which formed the slave deck and on which there was room to sit upright but 
not to stand erect. The only openings were the hatches, eight to ten feet square, 
which were closed during bad weather for several days at a time. Into such quar- 
ters were cast a thousand or more naked men, women and children, the resulting 
filth being indescribable and the odors overpowering. Many did not have room 
even on the floor to recline at length ; they crouched on the slave deck. ]iillowing 
their heads against each other. 

Occasionally as many as could be accommodated with standing room in the 
deck were driven up and the crew dashed a few buckets of water over them. 
No other measure of cleanliness was undertaken. Those put over them were 
sometimes fiendishly brutal, ever ready with a kick or blow, and the females 
were denied the protection accorded to female brutes. 

The "William" and the "Wildfire" each sailed from the \\'est Coast with r,ooo 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 139 

slaves. Of these 2,000 human beings 680 were landed from the "William" and 
520 from the ''Wildfire." The remainder died enroute. 

The boarding crew from the "Wyandotte" weighted and consigned to the deep 
twenty-one bodies from the "William," death's harvest of the preceding night. 
The "Mohawk" crew did likewise with fourteen bodies from the "Wildfire." 

The passage across was usually made in from eight to ten weeks, never less, 
more frequently in excess. The horrors of the "middle passage" across the 
western ocean were surely not of such a nature as to improve the physical 
condition of the wretched, docile savages, for notwithstanding their supposed 
savagery, they were docile and reasonably tractable towards their white masters, 
inspired, perhaps, through fear and ignorance. 

The captives cost from $5 to $25 in the first instance and were sold at from 
$130 to $400 after their delivery in the United States. 



PART II 



CHAPTER X 
EARLY EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS 

long's YELLOWSTONE EXPEDITION — FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE MISSOURI — THE FIRE 
BOAT THAT WALKS ON THE WATER LONg's INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY EXPE- 
DITION JOSEPH RENVILLE, GUIDE — FEASTED BY THE WAHPETONS — CHIEF 

WANATON THE DEBATABLE LAND RETURN OF THE HUNT DOG SLEDGES AND 

TRAVOIS — RED RIVER CARTS — ARISTOCRACY OF THE PLAINS-^EXPEDITION OF MAT. 
SAMUEL WOODS — OPENING OF NAVIGATION ON THE RED RIVER — ON THE MISSOURI 
RIVER LOUISIANA FUR COMPANIES. 

"By mutual confidence and mutual aid 
Great deeds are done and great discoveries made." 

— Homer's Iliad. 
"What was only a path is now made a high road." 

^Martial Epigrams, Book 7, 60. 

long's Y'ELLOWSTONE EXPEDITION 1819-182O 

James Alonroe, as President of the United States, was desirous of protect- 
ing tlie frontier from British aggression, being convinced that the whole western 
country took a great interest in the success of the contemplated establishment of 
a military post at the mouth of the Yellowstone River; that it was looked upon 
as a measure better calculated to preserve the peace of the frontier, secure to us 
the fur trade, and break up the intercourse between the British traders and the 
Indians, than any other which had been taken by the Government, and he ex- 
pressed a willingness to assume great responsibility in hastening its consummation. 

Accordingly, Maj. Stephen H. Long was selected to conduct the expedition 
to the mouth of the Yellowstone, or to the Mandan villages, as a part of the 
system of measures which had for its object the extension of the fur trade. The 
newspapers of the period took a very rosy view of the great benefits to follow 
in the wake of this expedition, and were confident that it would strike at the 
very root of British influence. An able corps of scientific men were included in 
the party, several of whom accompanied him to the Red River three years later. 
Their instructions followed those given to Lewis and Clark, but the importance 
of selecting a point near the forty-ninth parallel of latitude, where a sphere 
of influence might be established, was strongly impressed upon them. 

Great preparations were made for the expedition, and in all about eight 
hundred men assembled at St. Louis, and other points, but the summer faded, 
and was succeeded by the chilly blasts of autumn, and nothing was accomplished, 

143 



144 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 



: 



although five steamboats were engaged to take them up the river and an 
expenditure of over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars was made the subject 
of congressional inquiry. 

THE FIRST STEAMBOAT OX THE' MISSOURI 

A Steamboat 75 feet in length, 13 feet beam, drawing 19 inches of water, 
was built for the engineers of this expedition, and named the Western Engineer. 
It was the first steamboat to enter the waters of the Missouri, and the only boat 
of this expedition put into requisition on that river. It reached Council Bluffs 
on the west side of the Missouri River, twenty-five miles above Omaha, Neb., 
September 17, 1819, and the engineers went into winter quarters near that point, 
— which became Fort Atkinson, abandoned in 1827, — but Congress failing to 
provide the necessary money to continue the expedition to the Yellowstone, it 
was diverted to the Rocky Mountains. A very large percentage of the soldiers 
at the winter cantonment died of scurvy. 

The Missouri Gazette of May 26, 1820, contained a description in detail of 
the Western Engineer, which fully justifies the emotional element in Whittier's 
tragic verse : 

"Behind the scared squaw's birch canoe 
The steamer smokes and raves, 



The Gazette said : "The bow of this vessel exhibits the form of a huge serpent, 
black and scaly, rising out of the water from under the boat, his head as high 
as the deck, darting forward, his mouth open, vomiting smoke, and apparently 
carrying the boat on his back. From under the boat at the stern issues a stream 
of foaming water, dashing violently along. All of the machinery is hid. Three 
brass field pieces mounted on wheeled carriages, stand on the deck. The boat is 
ascending the rapid stream at the rate of three miles an hour. Neither wind nor 
human hands are seen to help her, and to the eye of ignorance the illusion is 
complete that a monster of the deep carries her on his back, smoking with 
fatigue, and lashing the waters with violent exertion." 

It was a scene calculated to paralyze with fear the "untutored mind" of the 
savage, although it bore a flag on which a white man clasped the hand of an 
Indian, a typical act of friendly intercourse, backed, however, by bristling guns. 
The Indians might well have called it the "fire boat that walks on the water," 
as they later did the Yellowstone. For the kind of terror it inspired it may 
have been the prototype of the "fighting tanks," "land battleships," or "cater- 
pillar tractors," made by the Holt Manufacturing Company of Peoria, 111., for 
an agricultural implement to meet some of the difficulties of modern farming 
and used in the great European war. As appropriated by the British in Sep- 
tember, 1916, from a revolving turret on the monitor plan, defended by com- 
plete armor, a murderous fire pours forth in a perpetual stream of bullets from, 
as described, "a fire-belching, death-dealing monster," with almost incompre- 
hensible means of locomotion, propelling itself forward by a gasoline engine, 
passing over all manner of obstacles and entanglements, laying its own track as 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 145 

it moves along. The London Times refers to them as '"unearthly monsters, 
cased in steel, spitting fire, and crawling laboriously, but ceaselessly, over trench, 
barbed wire and shell crater." The Germans, like the Lidians, have a supersti- 
tious horror of it. "Will we ever forget,'' they cry, "our first sight of the thing 
as it came at us out of the morning mist?" 

The Rocky Mountain expedition was important, and the report interesting, 
but unfavorable to the development of the country for agricultural purposes, 
and had the eiYect to retard progress in that direction, and to prevent congres- 
sional action with reference to opening the country to settlement. 

long's internatioxal eoundary expedition 

In July, 1823, Maj. Stephen H. Long's expedition to locate the boundary 
between the United States and Canada at its intersection with the Red River of 
the North, and thence eastward to Lake Superior, reached Pembina, and finding 
the exact location, on the 8th of August, marked it with an oak post, raised the 
American flag, and fired the national salute. The entire settlement, consisting of 
about three hundred and fifty inhabitants, was found to be on the American 
side, with the exception of one log cabin, and there was great rejoicing among 
the people, who congratulated themselves that all the buiifalo, also, were on this 
side. The Hudson's Bay Company, the Roman Catholic Fathers, and other 
distinctively British interests, finding that Pembina was in the United States, had 
already moved down the river to Fort Douglas, in order that they might be on 
undisputed British territory. 

Among the reasons for the expedition, was that of investigating the extent 
of the fur trade in the Red River country, and the various reports originating 
with the conflicting trading interests, the character of the country along the 
northern border, then unsurveyed, and to make inquiry into the character and 
customs of the Indian tribes inhabiting the country. 

In command of the party was Maj. Stephen H. Long, topographical engineer, 
U. S. A., assisted in his researches by James Edward Calhoun, astronomer and 
topographer; Thomas Say, zoologist and antiquary; Samuel Seymour, landscape 
painter and designer; and Prof. William H. Keating, mineralogist, geologist and 
historiographer, and the report prepared by the last named was from notes made 
by these several parties. 

Col. Josiah Snelling of the Fifth LTnited States Infantry, furnished a guard, 

consisting of a sergeant, two corporals, and eighteen soldiers, commanded by 

, Lieut. St. Clair Denny, until the return of Lieut. Martin Scott, who had been 

connected with the expedition after it left Prairie du Chien, and who again 

joined it in the Red River \'alley. They traveled overland from Wheeling, 

, W. Va. 

JOSEPH RENVILLE, GLTIDE 

After leaving Fort Snelling, Joseph Renville, who had been one of the inter- 
preters of Lieut. Pike's expedition, was the Sioux interpreter and guide 
of Major Long's. His mother was a Sioux of a prominent family, and his 
Ifather a French trader. He was a man of unusual ability, speaking both French 

Vol. I— 10 



146 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

and English fluently, and is credited with having translated much of the New 
Testament from English into French, and from F'fench into his mother tongue 
from hearing it read. He had no education, except the practical kind, which 
he was able to acquire from his surroundings. During the War of 1812, though 
a native of the United States, he joined the Indian allies of the British Govern- 
ment, and held the rank and drew the pay of a captain in the British army. He 
was distinguished as an active and humane officer, and was successful in repress- 
ing the depredations of the. Sioux ; preventing them from sharing in the bloody 
and disgraceful acts perpetrated by other Indian allies of the British. After the 
war h^ retired on half pay, but resigned his commission in order to engage in 
trade on the American side; his old trading post being at the head of the Red 
River, which was made headquarters of the Columbia Fur Company, of which, 
in 1822, he was one of the leading organizers. 

The Columbia Fur Company had a station on Big Stone Lake, in charge at 
the time of the Long expedition, of a trader of the name of Moore. 

FEASTED BY THE W.\HPETOXS 

As Major Long approached Big Stone Lake, he met a band of Wahpetons, 
who invited his party to their village, where they prepared a feast for him, 
consisting of the choicest cuts of the buffalo, and while partaking of it he 
explained to them the object of his visit, which seemed to interest and please 
them much. As they were about concluding the feast, the major was informed 
that another had been prepared for them, and lest he might offend, the second 
invitation was accepted, but before that was finished, another was ready, at 
which was to be served the choicest food in the power of the Indian to oiTer — 
a dog had been killed for the occasion ! 

In the evening Major Long returned to the skin lodge of the chief, where 
another feast was spread, and he then received the assurance of that distinguished 
individual, Tatanka Wedhacheta, that he would send messengers to his people 
who were absent hunting, and whom they might encounter, directing them to 
supply his needs. 

ENTERTAINED BY CHIEF WANATOX 

Wanaton of the Yanktons, was then regarded as one of the great men of 
the Siou.x Nation. When Major Long arrived at Lake Traverse, this renowned 
chief killed three dogs, and gave him and his party a royal feast. A pavilion 
had been formed by connecting several skin lodges, carpeted with fine buffalo 
robes, and the air was filled with the odor of sweet grass which had been 
burned for its perfume. The dinner courses consisted of buffalo meat boiled 
with Indian turnips, the same vegetable, without meat, in buffalo grease, and, 
finally, the much esteemed dog meat, which, after tasting. Major Long declared 
he no longer wondered was regarded as a dainty dish. The feast prepared for ten 
was said to have been sufficient for one htmdred men. 

Wanaton wore moccasins, leggings of scarlet cloth, a blue breech-cloth, a 
shirt of painted muslin, a frock coat of fine blue cloth, with scarlet facings, but- 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 147 

toned and secured around his waist by a belt, a blue cloth hat, and a handsome 
Mackinaw blanket. 

The next day Wanaton paid Major Long a return visit, when he wore the 
full habit of an Indian chief ; the most prominent part of his apparel being a 
mantle of buffalo skins of a fine white color, decorated with tips of owl feathers, 
and others of various hues. His necklace had about sixty claws of the grizzly 
bear, and in his hair he wore nine sticks, secured by a strap of red cloth and 
painted vermilion, to represent the number of wounds he had received in battle. 
His face was painted with vermilion, and he carried, and frequently brought into 
use, a fan of turkey feathers. 

THE DEBATABLE LAND 

The Indians regarded the country between the Bois de Sioux and Turtle River 
debatable land, it being claimed by both the Chippewa and Sioux, and neither 
venturing to hunt in the region without being prepared for war, many sanguinary 
conflicts resulted. 

Major Long had advanced only about nine miles into this region when he 
encountered a party of about seventy-five Sioux, who were very threatening 
in their attitude, but he managed to escape them and pushed on to Pembina, 
where he was entertained by a trader of the name of Nolen, who had been 
stationed there several years, and whose daughters taught in the school at 
St. Boniface. 

Nearly all of the male inhabitants were . out on a buiifalo hunt, and the 
village was almost destitute of provisions, as was also the exploring party, but 
on the return of the hunters the next day there was an abundance. 

RETURN OF THE HUNT 

The procession consisted of 115 carts, each loaded with about eight hundred 
pounds of buffalo meat. There were 300 persons, including the women, in the 
train, and 200 horses. Twenty hunters rode abreast, firing a salute as they passed 
Major Long's camp. 

EXTENT AND VALUE OF THE FUR TRADE 

The value of the trade of the Red River region south of the boundary', annu- 
ally, as given to Major Long by a member of the Columbia Fur Company, was 
$64,877, embracing beaver, bear, buffalo, marten, otter, fisher, elk, mink, musk- 
rat, lynx, swan, rabbit, wolverine, buffalo cow skins, wolves, moose, and fox; 

1 buffalo being by far the greater item, amounting to 400 packs, of ten skins each, 
$16,000. The value of the beaver was placed at $4,000; of the fisher, $11,250; 
muskrat, $8,000, and lynx, $5,600. In addition to the above aggregate, there were 

' 1,000 bags of pounded buffalo meat, or pemmican. 

[ DOG SLEDGES AND TRAVOIS 

,j 

I Prior to 1800, the only means of transportation used on the plains of North 
I Dakota was the dog sledge in winter, the Indian travois in summer, and the 



148 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

packs by men or animals. The dog sledge was much like the toboggan, flat-bot- 
tomed with a guard or dash-board in front, wide enough to seat one person, and 
long enough so he could recline if desired, as the dogs skipped along over the 
prairie. The driver could jump on or off when the animals were moving at high 
speed. A passenger, wrapped in furs, could sleep in perfect comfort as the sledge 
glided along from seventy-five to ninety miles a day, each sledge drawn by three 
dogs, with a driver to each sledge. There were frequently as high as twenty-five 
sledges in a train. The dogs were held in check by a strong cord attached to the 
leader. The dogs responded to a motion of the whip or hand, to indicate the 
direction, every dog knew his name, and all became attached to their masters, 
especially when treated kindly. They were fed a pound of pemmican a day. 
A trained leader was worth $20, and others from $8 to $10. Their life of use- 
fulness on the train ran from eight to twelve years. A dog s'edge would carry 
about four hundred pounds. 

In winter dog sledges were used for both freight and passenger service ; the 
allowance of load per dog on a long journey being 100 pounds. One of the 
traders claimed that he had transported 1,000 pounds by the use of six, and, part 
of the way, eight dogs, from the Mandan villages on the Missouri, to the Red 
River posts. In summer the dogs were frequently used to carry buffalo meat 
from the place where the animals were killed to the points where the women 
were engaged in curing the meat for the trade or for the winter store. 

Two poles were crossed and fastened over the shoulders of the dogs, with a 
piece of hide underneath them to prevent chafing ; the other extremities dragging 
on the ground. It was secured to the animal by strings around the body, while 
a bar was fastened to the poles at the rear, keeping them a proper distance apart, 
and serving to support the meat. 

The travois for use on the ponies were made in substantially the same way, 
except that the poles about sixteen feet long were fastened to the saddle 
on either side of the animal, the rear end dragging on the ground, and were 
capable of carrying about live hundred pounds. They were also called the traville 
and by some the travees. 

RED RIVER CARTS 

The Red River cart made its appearance in 1801, and is first mentioned in 
history by Alexander Henrj', who gives its proportions as about four feet high, 
wheels with only four spokes, placed perpendicularly, without the least leaning 
outward. Made entirely of wood, unpainted and weather-stained, the creaking 
of their wheels could be heard a mile or more. They were drawn by one horse 
or an ox or cow. 

They were used for the transportation of furs and other supplies long dis- 
tances, the goods for the traders being shipped in by this means, and the pro- 
ceeds of the chase shipped out in the same manner. From the description given 
by Mr. Henry, one may readily imagine the variety to be found in a train of 
from one hundred to five hundred Red River carts when on the summer chase, 
or engaged in transporting freight to and from the settlements. 

These carts, capable of conveying about five pieces (450 pounds) according to 
Mr. Henry, or, say. from 500 to 800 pounds, were each drawn by one horse, ox, 



i 




RED EIVER CART, 1801 TO 1871 



..^=^^' 




GRAND FORKS IN 1874 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 149 

or cow. !Mr. Henry was doubtless thinking of the possibilities of using oxen for 
transportation when he exclaimed: "If we had only one horse in the Northwest, 
we would have less laziness, for men would not be burdened with families, and 
so much given to indolence and insolence." 

He thus describes the first train pulling out in 1802 : 

"The men were up at break of day, and their horses tackled long before sun- 
rise, but they were not in readiness to move before 10 o'clock, when I had the 
curiosity to climb to the top of my house, to examine the movement and order 
of march. Anthony Paget, guide and second in command, led off with a cart 
drawn by two horses, and loaded with his own private baggage, casse-tetes 
(liquors), bags, and kettles. Madame Paget follows the cart with a child one 
year old on her back, and very merry. C. Bottineau, with two horses, and a cart 
loaded with 13-2 packs, his own baggage, and two young children, with kettles 
and other trash on the cart. Madame Bottineau with a young child on her back, 
was scolding and tossing it about. Joseph Dubois goes on foot, with his long 
pipestem and calument in hand. Madame Dubois follows her husband, carrying 
his tobacco pouch. Anthony Thelliere, with a cart and two horses, loaded with 
iJ/S packs of goods and Dubois' baggage. Anthony LaPoint, with another cart 
and two horses loaded with two pieces (180 pounds) of goods, and baggage 
belonging to Brisbois, Jessaume, and Pouliote, and kettles suspended on each 
side. M. Jessaume goes next to Brisbois with gun, and pipe in his mouth, puff- 
ing great clouds of smoke. M. Pouliote, the greatest smoker in the Northwest, 
has nothing but pipes and pouch. These three fellows having taken the farewell 
dram, lighting fresh pipes, go on, brisk and merry, playing numerous pranks. 
Don Severman, with a young mare, the property of M. Langlois, loaded with 
weeds for smoking, an old Indian bag, Madame's property, some squashes and 
potatoes, a small keg of fresh water and two young whelps. Next come the young 
horses of Livermore, drawing a traville, with his buggy, and a large worsted 
mask, queucate, belonging to Madame Langlois. Next appears Madame Cam- 
eron's young mare, kicking and rearing, and hauling a traville, which was loaded 
with a bag of Hour and some cabbages, and a large bottle of broth. M. Langlois, 
who is master of the band, now comes, leading a horse that draws a traville, 
nicely covered with a new pointed tent, under which are lying his daughter and 
Mrs. Cameron, extended at full length, and very sick. This covering, or canopy, 
has s. pretty effect. Madame Langlois now brings up the rear, following the 
traville with a slow step and melancholy air, attending to the wants of her daugh- 
ter. The rear guard consisted of a long train of dogs, twenty in number. The 
whole forms a string nearly a mile long." 

Following the travois and the Red River cart came the stage and transporta- 
tion companies. The Hudson's Bay Company contracts, which gave them con- 
trol of nuich of the Canadian Northwest, were terminated in 1869, and the Mani- 
toba government was organized in 1870. That year the first United States land 
office was opened in North Dakota at Pembina. There was then no regular mail 
to Fort Garry, now Winnipeg, and no means of communication, except in private 
interests, between Manitoba and the outside world. Therefore, in the spring of 
1 87 1, the stage route was extended from Georgetown to Winnipeg, a contract 
having been let to Capt. Russell Blakely, of St. Paul, to carry the mail to Winni- 
peg, the first stage arriving at Winnipeg September 11, 1871. In 1878, the rail- 



150 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

road having been extended to Winnipeg, *tlie stage and transportation company 
transferred its line to Bismarck, and opened up a daily line of stages to the Black 
Hills. About the same time a line of daily stages was established from Bismarck 
to Miles City, Mont., and another from Bismarck up the Missouri River to 
Fort Buford and down the river to Fort Yates, and still another from Bismarck 
to EUendale. A government line of telegraph was also established from Bismarck 
to Fort Yates, and north to Buford and tlience to Miles City and Fort Keogh. 

THE ARISTOCRACY OF THE PLAINS 

The aristocracy of the plains consisted of the traders, their clerks, the buffalo 
hunters, and their families. The traders enjoyed every luxury, and always kept 
the finest liquors for entertainment. They were liberal, and honest, in their way. 
The buffalo hunters were most improvident in dress and living. 'Tn many 
instances," Mrs. Cavileer states, "their wives wore silk velvet, and the most costly 
fabric of other manufacture, even in the buffalo camp. The style of dress was a 
matter of much concern among the women. The waist was close fitting, with 
'mutton-leg' sleeves, the folds of the round, plain skirt falling to within six 
inches of the ground. They wore moccasins, mostly beaded or embroidered with 
quills, and leggings. A graceful feature of their costume was a broadcloth 
blanket, thrown carelessly over their shoulders, while a fine silk handkerchief was 
so fastened over the head and face as to display most bewitching eyes to the best 
possible advantage. The hair was neatly braided and coiled at the back of the 
head. They had charming manners, with an oriental tinge." These were the 
nut-brown women of the plains, the wives and daughters of the traders and their 
clerks. 

The tents or tepees were carpeted with skins, and, at times, with expensive 
brussels rugs, and were often exceedingly rich in drapery. In the "Bridal of 
Pennacook" John G. Whittier draws a fascinating picture of primitive life in 
the habitations of Indians like their neighbors: 

"Roof of bark, and wall of pine, 
Through whose chinks the sunbeams shine, 
Tracing many a golden line 

On the ample floor within; 
Where, upon the earth-floor stark 
Lay the gaudy mat of bark, 
With the bear's hide, rough and dark, 

And the red deer's skin. 

"Window tracery, small and slight. 
Woven of the willow white. 
Lent a dimly checkered light; 

And the night stars glimmered down. 
Where the lodge-fire's heavy smoke 
Slowly through an opening broke, 
In' the low roof, ribbed with oak, 

Sheathed with hemlock brown " 

EXPEDITION OF MAJ. SAMUEL WOODS 

In 1849, in accordance with a suggestion of William Medill of Ohio, United 
States commissioner of Indian affairs, to send an exploring expedition to the Red 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA . 151 

River \'alley, Thomas Ewiiig^ of Ohio, United States secretary of the interior 
in the administration of President Zachary Taylor,, of Virginia, approved the 
undertaking, believing tliat the best way to prevent anticipated and remedy exist- 
ing evils — such as the illegal traffic in liquor carried on by the British traders 
with the Indians — would be to purchase a moderate portion of the Indian country 
and open it to settlement. Another object was to investigate the danger to the 
settlements reported to be threatening on account of the destruction of their main 
dependence, the buffalo. It was also a part of the project to select a site for a 
military post which afterwards became Fort Abercrombie on the Red River in 
Richland County. 

The expedition, conducted by Brevet Maj. Samuel Woods, captain Sixth 
United States Infantry, then stationed at Fort Snelling, at the head of navigation 
of the Mississippi River, near St. Paul, Minn., consisted of Second Lieut. Ander- 
son D. Nelson, Sixth L'nited States Infantry quartermaster and commissary, 
having in charge a mountain howitzer, Second Lieut, and Brevet Capt. John 
Pope of the. topographical engineers, and Dr. James Sykes, acting assistant 
surgeon, medical officer. Lieut. John William Tudor Gardiner and Second Lieut. 
Thomas F. Castor, with Company D, First Dragoons, numbering forty men, 
were to meet him at Sauk Rapids, and were intended for the garrison of Fort 
Gaines, later known as Fort Ripley, then a military post on the Mississippi 
opposite the mouth of Mohoy River ten miles below the Crow Wing River, about 
forty miles above Sauk Rapids. As directed by George W. Crawford, of Georgia, 
then secretary of war, Major Woods was to select a point for the military post 
not exceeding 200 miles west of Fort Gaines. 

They left Fort Snelling June 6th, proceeding to the Turtle River country 
northwest of Grand Forks, thence north to Pembina at the northern frontier of 
the United States, where they arrived August ist, and returned to Fort Snelling 
September 18, 1849. 

Jonathan E. Fletcher was Indian agent on the Copper Missouri, having a vast 
extent of country in his charge, and he had reported that some attention must be 
given the Red River country in order to prevent injustice being done to American 
traders by unlawful and injurious interference by British subjects, and to put a 
stop to our Indians being supplied with ardent spirits, and the great destruction 
of game by persons from the British side of the line. 

He called attention to the great and wanton destruction of the buffalo, caus- 
ing discontent among the Indians, leading in one or two instances to murder of 
persons so engaged. The buffalo, it was alleged, was almost the only means of 
subsistence of some sixty thousand Indians in that region and the Upper Missouri, 
and it was apparent that they must soon disappear under the prevailing condi- 
tions, through their destruction by other than Indians. He was confident that it 
would result in sanguinary and exterminating wars among the Indians, or cause 
them to precipitate themselves on the advanced settlements in order to procure 
the means of subsistence. 

He spoke of the considerable military post being maintained by the British 
across the line, then known as Fort Garry, for the protection of its citizens, and 
the preservation of peace and good order which suggested the propriety of a 
military post on the American side of the line. 

Mr. Fletcher dwelt particularly on the evils of the trade in ardent spirits 



152 ' EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

among the Indians, introduced by British subjects. The Hquor was supplied in 
some instances with a view to breaking down the business and the influence of 
the American traders ; to annoy and discommode them by purchasing with 
whisky all of the surplus provisions the Indians had to sell, but more especially 
to keep the Indians from obtaining furs, well knowing that they would not hunt 
or trap while they could obtain liquor. It was said that the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany would not sell liquor to anyone, and it was true that they would not sell to 
the Indians at any price for money, but they did exchange it for anything the 
Indians had to sell in the way of furs or provisions. 

Norman W. Kittson was then a licensed trader at Pembina, and it was his 
estimate that the population of the Red River, on both sides of the boundary, 
was 6,000, that one-third subsisted by hunting buffalo, and that they killed about 
twenty thousand buffalo annually. 

Mr. Fletcher charged that British subjects were holding councils with the 
Indians on the American side of the line, with a view to prejudicing them against 
our Government and against our system of trading with the Indians. He urged 
the great danger to the frontier citizens from inadequate military protection, 
and the importance of this feature was demonstrated by the Indian outbreak of 
1862. He also urged the advantage the British traders had over the Americans 
by reason of their ability to purchase without paying tariff rates. 

A letter from Henry M. Rice, an Indian trader, was also presented, in which 
he charged that the British trader at Rainy River assembled the Indians on the 
American side and made them presents to influence them against trading with 
the Americans and to prevent the Americans from trading in that country, and 
they sent out agents with whisky to buy, with a view to controlling, the wild rice 
crop, thereby depriving the trader and his employees of the means of subsistence. 

The trade was not regarded of value to the British but it was their purpose 
to destroy it, more especially to prevent Americanizing the Indians. They also 
feared to have the Canadian Indians learn the facts regarding the American sys- 
tem of trade among the Indians, and the low price at which they sold their goods. 

Mr. Rice stated that in the summer of 1848, a party of 1.200 carts visited the 
country south of Devils Lake and destroyed buffalo by the thousand for the 
meat, tallow and tongues. Mr. Rice, afterwards an influential Lnited States sen- 
ator from Minnesota, urged the purchase and settlement of the country, and that 
the half-breeds, British subjects by compulsion, not by choice, be encouraged to 
occupy the purchased portion. 

The plan to open the Red River country to settlement, formulated in 1848, 
was enthusiastically received by the half-bloods, but was met in silence by the 
Indians, and was used by the Hudson's Bay Company as a means to ])rejudice 
the Indians against the Americans. The opening was consummated twenty-five 
years later. 

At Pembina they found Father George Anthony Joseph Belcourt, located 
about a mile down the river from Norman W. Kittson's trading establishment at 
Pembina, where he had been located eighteen years, and had a school for the 
education of the Chippewas and the children of the half-bloods, of whom there 
were a considerable number ; Kittson, as stated, placing the population along the 
international boundary at 6,000, and ^lajor Woods reporting 177 families in the 
vicinity of Pembina, 511 males and 515 females. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 153 

In addition to the school building which was two stories in height, there was 
a chapel on the grounds. 

Relative to the half-bloods, Father Belcourt wrote Major Woods: 
"The half-breeds are mild, generous, polished in their manners, and ready to 
do a kindness; of great uprightness, not over anxious of becoming rich, coptent- 
mg themselves with the necessaries of life, of which they are not at all times 
possessed. The greater number are no friends to labor; yet I believe this vice to 
proceed more from want. of encouragement, and the small prices they receive for 
their products, than from laziness, and this opinion is grounded upon the fact 
that they are insensible to fatigue and exposure, which they endure with lightness 
of heart when called tipon to do so in the course of diverse occupations. They 
have much openness of spirit, and their children manifest good capacity when 
taught ; still we could wish them to possess a little more perseverance. They are 
generally gay and fond of enjoyment ; they affect music, there being but few, 
comparatively speaking, who do not play on the violin. They are a fine physical 
conformation, robust and full of health, and of a swarthy hue. We see but slight 
dissensions in their families, which are for the most part numerous. The men 
commonly marry at the age of seventeen or eighteen and as a general thing are 
of good morals. The half-breeds number over five thousand souls. They first 
established themselves at Pembina, near the mouth of the river of that name in 
1818, when they had with them a resident Canadian priest. They had also erected 
a church, and were engaged in the cultivation of the soil with great success 
when Major Long visited the country, and having ascertained the latitude, 
declared it to be south of the 49th degree. St. Louis being the nearest American 
settlement of any size, and the distance being very great, it was out of the ques- 
tion for the residents of Pembina to hold intercourse with it, except by incurring 
great expense as well as danger. The Hudson's Bay Company profited by the 
inability of the colonists to communicate with the states, to give public notice that 
all inhabitants who were established on the American side of the line should 
descend the Red River and make settlement about the mouth of the Assinaboine 
River, under penalty in case of failure so to do of being refused all supplies from 
their store. At that time even more than at present, powder, balls, and net thread 
for fishing were articles indispensably necessary to their subsistence. In short, 
they were obliged to submit." 

EARLY TRADERS AND SETTLERS 

At the time of Major Woods' expedition the Hudson's Bay Company had a 
building a few feet south and were building extensively about two hundred yards 
north ot the international boundary. Norman W. Kittson was represented at 
that time by Joseph Rolette, a son of the one of that name met at Prairie du 
Chien by Lieutenant Pike. 

The Selkirk colonists were then engaged in farming on the Red River, north 
of the boundary, and they reported thirty to forty bushels of wheat, forty to fifty 
bushels of barley, forty to fifty bushels of oats, and 200 to 300 bushels of pota- 
toes per acre, as the usual yield. 



154 EARLY HISTORY OF XORTH DAKOTA 

RED RIVER MOSQUITOES 

The mosquitoes were an ever-present annoyance. At the site of the proposed 
military post it was said they literally filled the air and it was impossible to talk 
without inhaling them. "They choked down every expression," wrote Major 
Woods, "that would consign them to the shades. They condemn the displeasure 
and sing cheerily over the torture of their victims." The horses began to fail, 
attributable, principally, to the ever-increasing army of these insects, that did 
not allow the horses to rest by night nor quietly feed upon the grass. '"The suf- 
fering of the horses was painful to behold and irremediable. The men would 
industriously strike out with both hands, from morning till night, scarcely able 
to talk without inhaling some handfuls of them." 

At the site that afterwards became Fort Abercrombie they set up a square 
post and marked on it "163 miles to Sauk Rapids, July 14, 1849." At Goose 
River they encoimtered a vast herd of buffalo. At Turtle River they found an 
old earthwork, said to have been erected by the Chippewas for defense against 
the Sioux. It covered about an acre. Two or three years before, the old fort 
had again been occupied by a band of Chippewas, but they were driven off by the 
Sioux and five or six were killed. 

The coimtry north of the Sheyenne was the acknowledged land of the Chip- 
pewas, while that south was claimed by the Sioux. Their claims extended up the 
Sheyenne to Devils Lake, back to the Missouri River. 

The Chippewas at Pembina were then unorganized. Through the suggestion 
of Major Woods they elected Sakikwanel (Green Feather) principal chief, 
Majekkwadjiwan (End of the Current) first second chief, and Kakakanawak- 
kagan (Long Legs) second chief. The election was later approved by the Indian 
authorities. The tribe had been without a head since it had separated some 
years before from the mother tribe on the Great Lakes. The new dignitaries 
were properly saluted by the firing of guns and appropriately instructed as to 
their duties and responsibilities. 

While on the plains that season the Chippewa hunters had been attacked by 
the Sioux and several scalps had been taken on each side. Following the return 
of the hunters there was a scalp dance. The scalps were ornamented with rib- 
bons and feathers, and, fastened to the end of a stick, were borne in the dance 
high above the heads of the dancers. Those who bore them had returned from 
the war, heroes indeed, arriving in advance of the main body of hunters. They 
always expected troulile with the Sioux and were prepared for it, and were 
organized under a captain, whose orders they implicitly obeyed. 

, OPENING OF N.AVIGATION ON THE RED RIVER 

While traffic on the Red River began with the work of the voyageurs in the 
Indian trade, even before the advent of Henry's Red River Brigade, and every 
branch of the stream had been reached by their boats, the goods for the wander- 
ing traders being packed on the backs of men to their temporary trading posts, 
it was not until 1838, that the first steamboat was built for operation on the Red 
River of the North, at Lafayette, Minn., by Capt. Anson Northrup, for whom 
it was named; this would carry from fifty to seventy-five tons. The ma- 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 155 

chinery was brought overland from Crow \\ ing and the timber was cut on the Red 
River. It was operated one season and then passed into the hands of the 
Hudson's Bay Company and its engine was transferred to a saw mill. 

The "Freighter" was a 200-ton boat operating on the Minnesota River. An 
attempt was made to transfer this boat from the waters flowing into the Gulf 
of Alexico to the Red River tributary to Hudson Bay. There have been sea- 
sons when this could have been done, but in this case the attempt failed. The 
"Freighter" grounded in the inlet of Big Stone Lake and became a wreck. Her 
machinery was sold to the Hudson's Bay Company and was used in the "Interna- 
tional," built at Georgetown, Minn., in i860. She operated for many years on 
the Red River, exclusively for the Hudson's Bay Company, until competition 
forced her into private traffic. 

In 1871 the "Selkirk'' was built at McCauleyville, by James J. Hill and Capt. 
Alexander Griggs. She was operated for general traffic. In 1872 the two lines 
were consolidated and run under one management. In 1875, the merchants of 
Winnipeg built the "Minnesota" and "Manitoba" at Moorhead. One of them sank 
and the other soon passed into the hands of the other company. The company 
was styled the Red River Transportation Company, and they built the "Sheyenne" 
and "Dakota" at Grand Forks, and the "Alpha" at McCauleyville. The 
"Grandin" was built at Fargo, together with a line of barges, and used for trans- 
porting grain from the Grandin farms to the Northern Pacific Railroad. Numer- 
ous other barges were built at Moorhead, which were used for transporting goods 
down the river to Winnipeg, where they were broken up and used for lumber. 
The "Pluck" was built on the Alississippi, and transferred by rail to the Red River 
from Brainerd, by Alsop Brothers. In 1881 they built the "Alsop" and a line of 
barges, operating boat and barges until 1886. , 

ON THE MISSOURI RIVER 

The mackinaws or small boats with a crew of five men, would start from the 
trading posts down the river, requiring thirty days to reach St. Louis. The men 
would leave St. Louis in the spring, returning after about sixteen months. They 
were paid $220 for the round trip, up the river one season and back the next 
spring. Carpenters and blacksmiths were paid $300 per annum. The traders 
were paid $500 per annum. 

Gen. John C. Fremont, writing of his trip from St. Louis to Fort Pierre 
in his memoirs, says : "For nearly 2]^^ months we were struggling against the 
current of the turbid river, which in that season of high water was so swift 
and strong that sometimes the boat would for a moment stand quite still, seem- 
ing to pause to gather strength until the power of the steam asserted itself, and 
she would fight her way into a smooth reach. In places the river was so embar- 
rassed with snags that it was difficult to thread a way through them in the face 
of the swift current and treacherous channel, constantly changing. Under these 
obstacles we usually laid up at night, making fast to the shore at some convenient 
place where the crew could cut a supply of wood for the next day. It was a 
pleasant journey, as little disturbed as on the ocean. Once above the settlements 
on the Lower Missouri, there were no sounds to disturb the stillness but the 
echoes of the high-pressure steam pipe, which traveled far along and around the 



156 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

shores, and the incessant crumbling away of the banks and bars, which the river 
was steadily undermining and destroying at one place to build up at another. 
The stillness was an impressive feature, and the constant changes in the character 
of the river shores afforded always new interest as we steamed along. At times 
we traveled by high perpendicular escarpments of light colored rock, a gray and 
yellow marl, made picturesque by shrubbery or trees ; at others the river opened 
out into a broad delta-like expanse, as if it were approaching the sea. At length, 
on the seventieth day, we reached Fort Pierre, the chief port of the American 
Fur Company, on the right bank of the Missouri River about thirteen hundred 
miles above its mouth." 

In the Knife River region the crumbling banks disclosed thick beds of lignite 
coal, used by Lewis and Clark for blacksmithing purposes : and which has become 
an important item of commerce and is required by law to be used in heating the 
public buildings of North Dakota. It is so abundant that it is practically the 
only fuel used in some parts of North Dakota. Some of the beds are upwards 
of thirty feet in depth. 

LOUISIANA FUR COMPANIES 

In 1 71 2 Anioine de Crozat was granted a monopoly of trade in the Province 
of Louisiana, as noted under "Louisiana Purchase" in Part I, having a trading 
house on the site of Montgomery on the Alabama River, and another at Natchi- 
toches on the Red River. Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville established Fort Rosalie 
on the site of Natchez in 1716. After five years in possession, Crozat resigned 
his patent, and was succeeded, in 1717, by a company organized by John Law, a 
Paris banker, known as the Mississippi Company, whose patent was to last 
twenty-five years, or until 1742. Their activities extended as far north as the 
mouth of the Grand River, in South Dakota. In 1722 an attempt was made by 
M. de Bourgemont to establish a trading post five miles below Grand River, 
known as Fort Orleans, but all the inmates of the post were killed by the Indians 
in 1726 as the result of well founded complaints of ill treatment by the traders, 
and in 1732 the Mississippi Company resigned its patent to the crown of France. 

In 1762 the French governor general of Louisiana granted authority to Pierre 
Ligueste Laclede and his partners, their organization being known as the Louisi- 
ana Fur Company, to establish trading posts on the Mississippi River, and on 
February 15, 1764, Auguste Chouteau, representing that company, selected the 
site of St. Louis, twenty miles below the mouth of the Missouri, for headquarters. 

October 21, 1764. the king of France ordered that portion of Louisiana west 
of the Mississippi to be turned over to the king of Spain ; the cession was accepted 
by the Spanish on November 13th of that year, and August 11, 1768, Spanish 
troops took possession of the Louisiana Fur Company's post at St. Louis, giving 
place in July. 1769, to the Spanish lieutenant governor, Don Pedro Pieruas, who 
assumed civil authority. 

May 26, 1780, a band of Indians led by British regulars from Fort Michili- 
mackinac or Mackinaw — established by French Jesuits on the Michigan side; of 
the strait between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, conquered by the British in 
1760 — surprised the people outside the wall of brush and clay, built the previous 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 157 

year around the settlement of St. Louis for defense, killing from fifteen to 
twenty persons, and then attacked the village, but were repulsed. 

Spain held possession of the territory until 1800, when it was retroceded to 
France, as related in Part I, and was ceded to the United States in 1803. On 
June 2, 1819, the first steamboat reached St. Louis, direct from New Orleans. 
She was named the Harriet. The first steamboat built in St. Louis was not 
launched until twenty-three years after. 

The Mississippi Company was reorganized in 1832, and during their occupa- 
tion trading posts were established in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, and 
lead mines were discovered in Northern Louisiana extending from the 33d degree 
north latitude to the Canadian territory. 



CHAPTER XI 
THE CONQUEST OF THE MISSOURI 

EARLY TRADING POSTS ON THE YELLOVN'STONE RIVER YELLOWSTONE TRAPPERS 

AMBUSHED — ATTACKED CY THE ARIKARAS — THE LEAVENWORTH EXPEDITION — 

PUNISHING THE ARIKARAS THE PURPOSE OF THE CAMPAIGN — MISSOURI RIVER 

TRADERS ROCKY MOUNTAIN FUR COMPANY INDIAN TREATIES OF 1825 — THE 

COLUMBIA FUR COMPANY DIVISIONS OF THE AMERICAN FUR COMPANY IN 183I 

COLTER AND FINK, CHARACTER SKETCHES. 

"Careless seems the great Avenger; History's pages but record 
One death grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the word ; 
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne. 
Yet the scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown 
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own." 

— James Russell Lowell. 

EARLY TRADING POSTS ON THE YELLOWSTONE 

There were several posts at the mouth of tlie Big Horn, where it joins the 
Yellowstone River in Montana, not far from the Custer Battlefield ; the first 
built in 1807, by Manuel Lisa, the noted Indian trader — as previously mentioned 
— and abandoned the next year. One, called Fort Benton, was built at this 
point in 1822, and abandoned in 1823. In 1822 Gen. William H. Ashley and 
Andrew Henry built a post at this point, but gave it up after the first winter. 
In 1825, it will be seen, it was visited by the Atkinson Commission and the site 
described. Fort Cass was three miles above the mouth of the Big Horn, built 
by the American Fur Company in 1832, sometimes known as TuUoch's Fort, and 
abandoned in 1835. 

YELLOWSTONE TRAPPERS AMBUSHED 

During the winter of 1822-23, the Missouri Fur Company had maintained a 
force of hunters and trappers on the Yellowstone and its branches. The party 
originally consisting of forty-three men, who wintered at the mouth of the Big 
Horn River, were reduced to thirty by desertion. They had abandoned their 
winter quarters and were returning to their station with their catch of furs, 
when, on May 31st, they were ambushed by the Black feet. 

Robert Jones, who joined the Missouri Fur Company in 1818, and Michael 
Immel, the leaders of the party, and five others were killed, and four wounded. 
They lost their entire outfit of horses and equipment, and from $13,000 to $20,000 

158 




THE STEAMER "YELLOWSTONE" ASCENDING THE MISSOURI RIVER IN 1833 

From a painting by Cliarles Bodmer from "Travels to the Interior of North America in 

1832-3-4," by Maximilian, Prince of Wied, 1843. 




SNAGS, SUNKEN TREES, ON THE MISSOURI 

From a painting by Charles Bodmer from "Travels to the Interior of North America in 

1832-3-4," by Maximilian, Prince of Wied, 1843. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 159 

worth of furs, some of which were recovered through the good offices of the 
Hudson's Bay Company officials. 

ATTACKED EY THE ARIKARAS 

General Ashley, from his trading post at the mouth of the Yellowstone River, 
in 1823 planned an expedition for trading and trapping on that stream and its 
tributaries, intending to extend his operations to the Columbia River. He organ- 
ized a party of ninety men in the spring of that year, which he concentrated at 
the mouth of the Cheyenne River, with the intention of sending forty men across 
ihe plains with horses, the remainder to go on by boat. On the morning of May 
30th, he reached the Arikara villages, and spent three days there, purchasing 
about lifty horses for his Yellowstone expedition, but on June 2d he was attacked 
by the Indians, and of his men fourteen were killed, eleven wounded, and one 
died of his wounds. Practically all of his horses were killed, and much of his 
property was stolen or destroyed. The Indians numbered about six hundred, and 
the attack was without the slightest provocation or warning. 

General Ashley gave his loss as follows : Killed, John IMathews, John Collins, 
Aaron Stevens, James McDaniel, Westley Piper, George Flage, Benjamin F. 
.•^Iweed, James Penn. Jr., John Miller, John S. Gardner, Ellis Ogle, David 
Howard. Wounded, Reece Gibson (died of wounds"), Joseph Mouse, John Law- 
son, Abraham Ricketts, Robert Tucker, Joseph Thompson, Jacob Miller, Daniel 
McClain, Hugh Glass, August Duffer, and Willis, a colored man. 

This company was succeeded by Smith, Jackson & Sublette, in 1826. They 
had great success, though they met with numerous mishaps. On one of their 
expeditions, nineteen of a party of twenty-two men were killed by the Indians, 
and their property taken, but through the Hudson's Bay Company, in this 
instance also, most of the property was recovered. Later the firm became Fitz- 
patrick, Sublette & Bridger. 

PUNISHING THE ARIKARAS 

June 18, 1823, Col. Henry Leavenworth left Fort Atkinson (Nebraska, near 
Council Blufifs, Iowa) with Companies A, B, D, E, F, and G, Sixth United States 
Infantry, for the purpose of punishing the Arikaras. He took with him several 
pieces of light artillery, manned by details from his command, and was accom- 
panied by eighty volunteers, armed and equipped by the fur companies, and from 
600 to 800 Sioux, organized by Joshua Pilcher, of the Missouri Fur Company ; 
the Sioux expecting a free hand in the matter of scalps and spoils. 

The roster of officers of this expedition included Col. Henry Leavenworth, 
Maj. Adam R. \\'ooley, Brevet Maj. Daniel Ketchum, Captains Bennett Riley 
and William Armstrong, Lieutenants John Bradley, Nicholas John Cruger. 
William N. Wickliffe, ^^'illiam Walton Morris, Thomas Noel, and Surgeon John 
Gale. 

The officers of the volunteer command and the Siou.x Indian contingent were 
Gen. William H. Ashley, Captains Jedediah Smith and Horace Scott, Lieutenants 
Hiram Allen and David Jackson, Ensigns Charles Cunningham and Edward 
Rose, -Surgeon Fleming, Quartermaster Thomas Fitzpatrick, and Serg.-]\Iaj. Wil- 



160 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Ham L. Sublette, of the Ashley party, and of the ^lissouri Fur Company and 
Indian contingent, Maj. Joshua Pilcher, president of the Missouri Fur Company 
and sub-agent of the Sioux, Captains Henry \'anderburg and Angus McDonald, 
First Lieut. Moses B. Carson and Second Lieut. William Gordon. 

The appointment of these officers was continned by Colonel Leavenworth, 
in special orders, except that of General Ashley, who was brigadier-general 
in the Missouri Militia. Pilcher, sub-agent of the Sioux, was appointed by 
Major O'Fallen. 

The entire command, as organized, including regulars, mountaineers, voya- 
geurs, trappers, and Indians, mustering as variously estimated from 800 to 1,200, 
was styled the "Missouri Legion." 

The distance from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to the Arikara villages, was said to 
be 655 miles, and the time consumed, including the stop for reorganization, was 
forty-eight days. 

There were two Arikara villages, a short distance apart, overlooking the 
river, and so situated as to fully command the channel, fortified by a stockade 
of timbers 6 to 8 inches thick and 15 feet in height, with earth thrown up on the 
inside to a height of about 18 inches. About three-fourths of the Indians were 
armed with London fusils (flint-lock), procured through British traders; the 
others with bows and arrows, and war axes. The warriors belonging to the 
villages numbered about six hundred. 

The ground covered by these villages was above the mouth of the Grand 
River that flows through the Standing Rock Indian Reservation to join the Mis- 
souri in South Dakota, near the border line between South and North Dakota, 
and, in 181 1, was about three-quarters of a mile from the channel of the Mis- 
souri, on Dead i\Ian"s Creek, which now flows through a timbered bottom, where, 
in 1823. there were sand-bars and the river channel. 

The Sioux auxiliaries awaited the arrival of Colonel Leavenworth at the 
mouth of the Cheyenne River, whence the advance was made. They arrived 
at the Arikara villages August 9th, and the Arikaras coming out to meet the 
Sioux, an engagement took place, in which the whites did not participate, as the 
Sioux were between them and the enemy. 

August loth Capt. Bennett Riley, with a company of riflemen, and Lieut. 
John Bradley, with a company of infantry, were posted on a hill within 100 paces 
of the upper village, screened from the enemy's fire. Lieut. William Walton 
Morris, with one 6-pounder and a 3j/>-inch brass piece, commenced an attack on 
the lower town. Sergeant Perkins, with one 6-pounder, was assigned to Capt. 
Henry Vanderburg, of the Missouri Fur Company, who was in command of the 
volunteers. Maj. Daniel Ketchum was ordered to the upper village with his 
command. 

The fire was continued from early in the morning until 3 o'clock in the after- 
noon. The Sioux lost two killed and thirteen wounded. Some of their number 
were in the meantime harvesting the crop of the Arikaras. assisted in their work, 
later in the day. by the soldiers, for the purpose of obtaining supplies; General 
Ashley's men having had no food for two days. Colonel Leavenworth lost two 
men wounded during the engagement. The .\rikara loss was heavy; Chief Grey 
Eyes being among the killed. 

When the -Sioux discovered that they were not to be given a free hand in the 




UPPER MISSOURI RIVER SCENE AT "DROWNED MAN'S RAPIDS" 
Steamer "Rosebinl" lidmewaiil bcmiid 




^TEA MKK "JOSEPHIN E" 
Type of Missouri River Steamboats, 1876. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 161 

attack upon the Arikaras, they commenced to parley with them and finally dis- 
appeared altogether. The Arikaras were much terrified and hastily made a 
treaty of peace, but failing to surrender the property taken from General Ashley, 
Colonel Leavenworth threatened to attack them again, when they fled. He tried 
to induce them to return and re-occupy their villages, but did not succeed. They 
left the mother of Chief Grey Eyes, old and infirm, in one of the lodges, sup- 
plied with water and food. Colonel Leavenworth placed her in one of the best 
lodges, with an increased supply, and left the village undisturbed, but before he 
was out of sight, the lodges, numbering 141, were all fired and quickly destroyed, 
except the one occupied by the Indian woman, whose domicile was not invaded. 
It was charged that the lodges were burned by Lieut. William Gordon and Capt. 
Angus McDonald, employes of the Missouri Fur Company. Gordon was one of 
the survivors of the Blackfeet attack on the Big Horn, and was noted as one of 
the most intrepid of the frontiersmen. In 1824 he had some further bloody 
experiences on the Yellowstone, again spending the winter on the Big Horn, with 
a band of Crows, causing a number of the Blackfeet, in various encounters, to take 
up their abode in the "Happy Hunting Grounds," whence none have as yet 
returned. 

When in their villages on the Cheyenne and Grand rivers, the Arikaras 
depended upon agriculture, rather than the chase, for food, bartering com with 
the Cheyenne and other tribes for buffalo robes, skins and meat, hunting in the 
fall and winter, exchanging the skins obtained by barter and the chase, with the 
traders for cloth and other things required for their ornament and comfort. 

Before the traders came, they made cooking utensils of pottery, mortars of 
stone for grinding their corn, hoes from the shoulder blade of the buiTalo and 
elk, spoons from the horn of the buffalo, wedges for splitting wood from horn, 
brooms from stiff grass, knives, spear and arrow heads from flint, and were com- 
paratively a well-dressed, well-fed and happy people. 

After the destruction of their villages in 1823, they rejoined their relations 
in Nebraska, sojourning there two years, returning to the Heart River, and to 
Knife River, in 1837, and finally settling at Fort Berthold, in 1862. 

LE.WEXWORTH AND THE TRADERS 

The Missouri Fur Company had furnished about forty men for the expedi- 
tion of 1823, to punish the Arikaras, and had operated with the troops in the 
attack upon the villages, but Colonel Leavenworth reported that in making the 
treaty of peace, he met with every possible obstacle which it was in the power 
of that company to throw in his way. He was very indignant because of the 
destruction of the Indian villages, and severely censured the officers of the Mis- 

( souri Fur Company for their interference, excepting from blame Capt. Henry 
Vanderburg and Lieut. Moses B. Carson, of that company. These gentlemen, in 
turn, stated that they were extremely mortified at having been selected as the 

j object of Colonel Leavenworth's approbation, and claimed that he had left 

impassable barriers to the restoration of peace. Major Pilcher's criticism was 

that the treaty of peace had been made before the Indians had been properly 

punished. 

In reply to these adverse views of Major Pilcher, Gen. Edmund Pendleton 
Vol. I— 11 



162 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Gaines, in his report to the secretary of war, fully sustained Colonel Leaven- 
worth, claiming it was his right and duty to determine the degree of punishment 
due the enemy, and to dictate terms of capitulation, and insisting that the victory 
most acceptable to the enlightened and victorious nation was that obtained at the 
least expense of blood. The general-in-chief of the army, and the President also, 
sustained Colonel Leavenworth. 

it will be remembered that Lewis and Clark were received by the Arikaras 
with cordial friendship. Their changed attitude was attributed to the influence 
of the Sioux. They were dependent upon the Sioux for arms and ammunition 
and were gradually led astray by them, and after the affair with Colonel Leaven- 
worth, they became intensely bitter in their hostility. 

Notwithstanding the outrage of the Blackfeet, there was no attempt made to 
punish them, and the Missouri Fur Company soon afterward retired from the 
Upper Missouri, and was succeeded by the American Fur Company, which had 
posts at the Forks of the Sheyenne, and three posts in the \ alley of the James. 
Lisa's Fort, occupied by him, and acquired by Joshua Pilcher, the head of the 
Missouri Fur Company in 1812, was on the right or south bank of the Missouri, 
about twelve miles from Fort Clark. After the Leavenworth campaign Major 
Pilcher named it Fort Vanderburg in honor of Capt. Flenry \'anderburg. 

THE PURPOSE OF THE CAMP.MGN 

The following extract from the dispatch of Major-General Edmund P. Gaines 
to John C. Calhoun, United States secretary of war, dated July 28, 1823, discloses 
the real purpose of the Leavenworth expedition: 

"The trade itself, however valuable, is relatively little or nothing when com- 
pared with the decided advantage of that harmonious influence or control, which 
is acquired and preserved, in a degree, if not wholly, by the constant friendly 
intercourse which the trade necessarily affords, and by which it is principally cher- 
ished and preserved. H we quietly give up this trade, we shall at once throw it, 
and with it the friendship and physical power of near thirty thousand warriors, 
into the arms of England, who has taught us in letters of blood (which we have 
the magnanimity to forgive, but which it would be treason to forget), that this 
trade forms rein and curb by which the turbulent and towering spirit of these 
lords of the forest can alone be governed. I say alone, because I am decidedly 
of the opinion that if there existed no such rivalship in the trade as that of the 
English, with which we have always been obliged to contend, imder the disad- 
vantage of restrictions stich as have never been imposed upon our rival adver- 
sary, we should, with one-tenth the force and expense to which we have been 
subjected, preserve the relations of peace with the Indians more effectively than 
they have been at any former period. But, to suffer outrages such as have been 
perpetrated by the Ricaras and Blackfeet Indians to go unpunished, would I'e 
to surrender the trade, and witli it our strong hold upon the Indians, to England." 

MISSOURI RIXF.R TR.XDERS 

Thomas Forsythe, a St. Louis trader, visited the tapper Missouri country in 
1797. There was then a post known as "Trudeau's" or the Pawnee House, near 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 163 

what is now Fort Randall. There were clerks representing British traders at the 
.Mandan villages near Knife River and at other points, but no permanent estab- 
lishments. 

Lewis and Clark, in 1804, found traders, mentioned elsewhere more particu- 
larly, at the Arikara villages, and after they passed up the Missouri River 
Loisell's post was established thirty-live miles below Fort Pierre in South Dakota, 
and was found in full operation by them on their return from the Pacific coast 
in 1806. 

Ramsey Crooks, afterwards general agent of the American Fur Company, 
and Robert McClellan, were also found in the ^Missouri River trade at this time, 
and Robert Dickson, then also operating at the headwaters of the Mississippi 
and on the Minnesota River and at Vermilion, midway between the mouth of the 
James and that of the \'ermilion River. There was a post also at the mouth of 
the Big Sioux (now Sioux City) which forms part of the border line between 
South Dakota and Iowa, with headwaters far above Sioux Falls. 

Cedar Post, established and destroyed by fire as early as 1810, was near what 
is now Chamberlain on the Missouri in South Dakota, on Cedar Island. Fort 
Atkinson, in Nebraska, was near the Council Bluffs, which are in Iowa, about 
twenty five miles above the modern city of that name, which is across the river 
from Omaha. It was established in iSig and abandoned in 1827, and was, in its 
day, an important military post. St. Joseph, Mo., in the early history of the 
fur trade, was known as Black Snake Hills. J. P. Cabanna's early post was ten 
miles above Omaha. This locality was the theater of activity in the fur trade 
for many years. 

A new post, built by the Missouri Fur Company in 1822, was known as Fort 
Recovery. Charles Bent, Lucien Fontenelle and James Dripps were members of 
this company. Dri])ps built several posts on the Missouri River. Fontenelle 
went to the mountains and became prominent in the fur trade in that region, 
shipping one season 6,000 pounds of beaver skins down the Yellowstone by macki- 
naws. This fur was largely used in the manufacture of hats, until about 1834, 
when silk came into use in its place. There was a trading post on the Missouri 
known as Fort Lucien, but its exact location cannot now be given. One of the 
early posts, known as Hanley's, was at Fort Randall, and Brasseau's was in the 
same vicinity. 

Fort Clark, mentioned in the Osage treaties of 1808 and 1822, was forty miles 
below the mouth of the Kansas River where it joins the Mis.souri between 
the states of Kansas and Missouri, and was subsequently known as Fort Osage. 
Fort Lookout, built by the Columbia Fur Company in 1822, was on the west 
bank of the Missouri near what is now Chamberlain. .S. Dakota. There was an 
Indian agency at this point for a number of years. This company had posts 
at the mouths of the Niobrara, White, Cherry, James, Sheyenne, Little Sheyenne, 
and Heart rivers. 

THE ROCKY MOUNT.MN FUR COMP.\.\-Y 

In March, 1822. Andrew Henry and AVilliam H. Ashlev advertised for and 
obtained 100 young men to go to the source of the Missouri River, on a contract 
of from one to three years. They left St. Louis on the 15th, in two keel boats 



164 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

One of the boats was sunk, and much property lost. Near the mouth of the 
Yellowstone, the Assiniboines ran off about fifty head of horses that were being 
led along the bank, compelling the party to stop at the mouth of the Yellowstone, 
where they established a trading post. Out of this beginning grew the Rocky 
I^Iountain Fur Company. The membership consisted of William H. Ashley, 
Andrew Henry, Jedediah S. Smith, David E. Jackson, William L. Sublette, 
Robert Campbell, James Bridger, Thomas Fitzpatrick, Samuel Tulloch, James 
P. Beckworth, Etienne Provost, and others. Ashley, who takes various titles in 
history, from captain to general, from his connection with the Missouri Militia, 
was a member of Congress several times from Missouri, and at this time lieu- 
tenant governor of that state. The number of men who lost their lives with the 
Rocky Mountain Fur Company is estimated to be about one hundred. 

April 14, 1822, President James Monroe granted a license to trade on the 
Upper ^lissouri to Gen. WiUiam H. Ashley and Maj. Andrew Henry. These 
appointments caused considerable anxiety on the part of Gen. WilHam Clark, 
in his capacity of United States superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis, and 
to his an.xious inquiries, John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, then United States 
secretary of war, expressed the hope that their conduct would be such as not to 
disturb the peace and harmony then existing between the Government and the 
Indians on the Missouri, but rather to strengthen and confirm them. 

IXDI.\N TRE.\TIES OF 1825 

Treaties between the United States and the Arikaras, Gros-\"entres, Mandans, 
Sioux, and Poncas were made in 1825, by the authority of the United States 
Congress, through a commission composed of Gen. Henry Atkinson, United 
States army, and Maj. Benjamin O'Fallon, United States Indian agent in charge 
of the Sioux on the Missouri River. 

The commission left St. Louis March 2~,. 1825, arriving at Council Bluff's, on 
the ^lissouri in Southwest Iowa, on the border of Nebraska, April 19th, audi 
remaining at that point until May 12th; their equipment consisting of eight keell 
boats, supplied with sails, cordelles, poles and paddles. 

The "cordelle" was a long line by which from twenty to forty men, on shore, 
towed the boat when necessary. It was attached to the top of a high mast which 
served to lift the line above the brush and other obstructions on the bank and 
was the main reliance, especially when the current was strong and the winds 
adverse. 

The boats were named Beaver, Buffalo, Elk, Mink, Muskrat, Otter, Raccoon, 
and White Bear, all familiar names in the fur trade, which governed the pre- 
dominating thought on the frontier at that time. 

There were in the expedition convoying the Indian Commissioners 476 men, 
forty of whom were mounted and kept the boats company by land. Gen. Henry 
Atkinson was in command of the expedition, with Col. Henrj' Leavenworth sec- 
ond in command. 

TRE.\TY WITH THE ARIKARAS 

The expedition arrived at the Arikara villages July iSth, and a treaty with 
the tribe was concluded, in which they agreed to remain at peace with the whites. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 165 

to surrender to the United States authorities any one trading unlawfully in the 
Indian country, and to aid in apprehending horse-thieves, with which the country 
was infested. Since then they have been at peace with the whites. 

After this treaty, the Arikaras recognized the right of the Sioux to the country 
south' of the Cannonball River, which joins the Missouri south of Mandan and 
Bismarck, and retired to the Knife River region, northwest of that point, wh'ich 
they have continued to occupy. 

The expedition arrived at the Mandan villages on the 26th of July, where 
they made treaties of the same import with the Mandans, Gros-Ventres, and 
Crows. Trouble was imminent with the Crows at this point. They had found 
the cannon unguarded, and had succeeded in spiking it ^yith mud, rendering it 
useless for the time being, and had become very insolent and unreasonable in 
their demands; whereupon Major O'Fallon knocked one chief down with his 
pistol, and Interpreter Edward Rose broke his gunstock over the head of another. 
General Atkinson assembled his troops at once, and the affair was over. 

They left the Mandan villages August 6th, and arriving at the mouth of the 
Yellowstone on the 17th, found three sides of General Ashley's fort, established 
in 1822, standing, and relative to the site it was recorded in the journal : 

"The position is the most beautiful spot we have seen on the river; being a 
tongue of land between the two rivers, a perfectly level plain, elevated above high 
water, and extending back to a gentle ascent at a distance of two miles." 

General Ashley, with twenty-four men, came down the Yellowstone while 
they were there, on his way to St. Louis, and went down the river with General 
Atkinson. He had 100 packs of beaver; a "pack" containing about eighty skins, 
dependent upon the size of the skin. A portion of the expedition had been 
120 miles above the mouth of the Yellowstone, in the hope of meeting and 
treating with the Assiniboines, but those Indians were absent on the summer 
hunt. The expedition left the mouth of the Yellowstone August 26th, on their 
return trip, which was accomplished without having had any trouble with 
the Indians. 

General Atkinson reported that he found no interference by the British of 
any sort. He did not favor the establishment of a military post in that region, 
but if that policy should be adopted, he recommended the mouth of the Yellow- 
stone as the proper place for it, and that a dependent post be established near 
Great Falls. 

In all the treaties made with the Indians by General Atkinson and Major 
Benjamin O'Fallon, embracing the Poncas, Sioux, Mandans, Gros-Ventres, and 
.\rikaras, it was stipulated that the Indians might be accommodated with such 
articles of merchandise, etc., as their necessities might demand, and the United 
States agreed to admit and license traders, under mild and equitable regulations, 
the Indians agreeing to protect such persons. 

The leading idea of the treaties was trade with the Indians, and the pro- 
tection of the persons engaged in it. There was no thought of benefiting or 
civilizing the Indian. 

MORE RECENT TRE.ATIES 

Under these treaties the United States, in a measure at least, became re- 
sponsible for the debts of the Indians to the traders, and as a result of the 



166 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

treaty of 1837, with the Sioux, $go,ooo was appropriated for the payment of 
such debts. One hundred thousand dollars was provided for the same purpose 
in the treaty with the Sacs and Foxes, and $200,000 to the Winnebagos, and, 
in 1851, $495,000 was provided to pay the debts of the Sioux to their traders; 
the distribution of the latter sum becoming the leading element in the Sioux 
massacre of 1862. 

It is the old story over again — the loss of homes to pay for unnecessary and 
unwise expenditure of borrowed money, or goods purchased on credit — for in 
all cases the money was taken from the purchase price of the Indian lands, 
and was claimed by their creditors. 

INDIAN DEBTS TO TRADERS 

Illustrating the credit system which these treaties tended to encourage, an 
imported three-point blanket costing $3.50, was sold to the Indians at $10, to 
be paid for in furs at traders' prices; guns costing $13, were sold for $30; 
gunpowder costing 20 cents a pound, was sold at $1, and all other goods 
required by the Indians at proportionate prices The Indian dollars w-ere 
in the form of furs; one buckskin, one or two doe skins, or four rat skins, 
being acceptable for a dollar. Three dollars were allowed for an otter skin, 
and $2 a pound for beaver skins. The price for goods was about one-half lower 
when the Indians returned in the spring with their catch of furs, and could 
exchange furs in hand for goods. 

It was estimated that if the traders were paid the full credit price for 
one-fourth of the goods they sold in that way, they would be amply remunerated 
for all goods sold on credit. 

The usual articles of merchandise taken into the Indian country were three- 
point blankets, red and blue in color, red and blue stroud — a coarse cloth for 
clothing — domestic calicos, rifles, shotguns, gunpowder, flints, lead, hoes, axes, 
tomahawks, knives, looking-glasses, red and green paint, copper, brass and tin 
kettles, beaver and other traps, bridles, saddles, spurs, silver ornaments, beads, 
thread, needles, wampum, horses, etc. 

There was a struggle among all the traders to obtain the beaver skins. 
Thomas Biddle, writing from personal knowledge of the fur trade, to Gen. 
Henry Atkinson, gives the following account of the bickerings between traders : — 

"The Indians, witnessing the efforts of these people to cheat ami injure each 
oth°r, and knowing no more important white men, readily imbibe the idea that 
all white men are bad. The imposing appearance of the army equipment of the 
white men (reference to the Yellowstone Expedition of 1819), and the novelty 
and convenience of their merchandise, had impressed the Indians with a high 
idea of their power and importance, but the avidity with which beaver skins are 
sought after, the tricks and wrangling made use of, and the degradations sub- 
mitted to in obtaining them, have induced a belief that the whites cannot exist 
without them, and have made a great change in their opinion of our importance, 
our justice, and our power." 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 167 

INDIAN OPPOSITION TO SETTLERS 

The ability of the Indians to find a ready market for their furs, and other 
products of the chase, and to obtain credit, led them to bitterly oppose the 
encroachment of settlers, and in this they were encouraged by the traders, 
whose interests were identical with the Indians' in this respect. In some 
instances the Indians refused annuities due them from the United States 
Government, and murdered their fellow tribesmen for accepting presents from 
the United States officials, believing that they had, in some manner, betrayed 
their interests. 

It was under the influence of the traders that they refused to make treaties, 
and under pressure from them that they consented, when it was possible to 
realize considerable sums, to pay alleged debts due from the Indians to the 
traders. 

THE COLUMBIA FUR COMPANY 

When the Hudson's Bay and North-West companies consolidated in 1821, 
about nine hundred men were thrown out of employment, and a number of 
these sought connection with American companies. The Columbia Fur Company 
was organized by Joseph Renville, a trader found on the Minnesota River by 
Pike's expedition in 1805, from men experienced in the fur trade. Though 
having a small capital, with headquarters at Lake Traverse, on the northeast 
border of South Dakota, where Renville had been engaged in trade previous to 
the War of 1812, they established a line of posts on the Missouri River in 1822; 
among the number Fort Tecumseh at the mouth of Bad River, in Central South 
Dakota — afterwards changed in location and named Fort Pierre, occupying land 
across the river from Pierre, the capital of South Dakota. The Premeau 
House was located on the west side of the Missouri near the present North 
Dakota state line, Fort Defiance established by discharged employees of the 
American Fur Company being known as Harvey, Premeau & Company, was 
located at the mouth of Medicine Knoll Creek, which is northeast of Pierre six 
miles above the Big Bend of the Missouri. There were, also, Fort Bonis, at the 
mouth of the Cannonball, and Mitchell's Post, near the present site of Bismarck 
rm the land afterwards entered as a homestead by J. O. Simmons. They also 
had a post near Mandan, on the Heart River, where there were large Indian 
villages, abandoned as a result of war with the Sioux and disease; the remaining 
Indians removing up to the Knife River where they were followed by the 
traders. Licenses were issued for the Arikara villages and for the Heart River 
as late as 1831. William Laidlaw and Kenneth McKenzie, former employees of 
the Hudson's Bay Company, were active in the development of the interests of 
the Columbia Fur Company, afterwards becoming permanently established at 
Pierre and Fort LTnion in connection with the American Fur Company. 

The trading posts were called "forts" because they were almost invariably 
fortified, in order to guard against attack, and to afliord shelter to friendly 
Indians, who might come to the fort to trade, if pursued by their enemies. 
There were usually two bastions or block-houses on diagonal corners, built of 
logs or stone, equipped with both artillery and musketry, so arranged that every 
front could be raked by the fire from the fort, in case of attack. 



168 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Fort Clark was on the west side of the Missouri River, near Fort Mandan, 
built by Lewis and Clark. Tilton's Fort, built by James Kipp in 1822, stood a 
little above Fort Clark. Its abandonment was forced in 1823, by the hostility 
of the Arikaras, and in 1825 Kipp re-established a post at the mouth of the 
White Earth River, northwest of the Fort Berthold Indian Agency, which was 
sold to the American Fur Company in 1827. 

DIVISIONS OF THE .\MERICAN FUR COMPANY 

Teton River post, at the mouth of the Bad River, near Fort Pierre, was 
owned by P. D. Papin, Henry Picotte and Carre Brothers, under the firm name 
of P. D. Papin & Company. The post was built in 1828-29, ^"d sold to the 
American Fur Company in 1833, Picotte thereafter becoming one of the man- 
agers of their vast interests on the Missouri with headquarters at Fort Pierre. 
Sublette & Campbell also had a post in this vicinity established about this time 
and sold, in 1833, to the American Fur Company. 

In a letter to Lewis Cass, Secretary of War, dated October 24, 1831, Thomas 
Forsythe spoke of the several divisions of the American ?"ur Company — details 
of whose organization have been previously given — operating above St. Louis. 
The division of Joseph Rolette, of Pembina and Prairie du Chien fame, in- 
cluded all the Indians from the Dubuque mines to a point above Fort St. 
Anthony, now Fort Snelling, and up the St. Peters River (now Minnesota), 
to its source, and also all Indians in the Wisconsin and upper part of Rock 
River region. J. P. Cabanna had the Indians below Council Bluffs, and August 
P. Chouteau had the Indians in the Osage country. Mr. Rolette procured his 
goods at Mackinaw, at the head of Lake Michigan, and shipped them by 
mackinaw boats across Lake Michigan, through Green Bay and the Fox and 
Wisconsin rivers in Central Wisconsin, to Prairie du Chien on the east bank 
of the Alississippi River. From Prairie du Chien they were forwarded up the 
Mississippi by keel-boats and by smaller boats to other points. 

Fort George, twenty-one miles below Fort Pierre, was built by Ebbitt & 
Cutting in 1842, for Fox, Livingston & Company, and like the other establish- 
ments became a part of the American Fur Company's trade monopoly. 

COLTER AND FINK: CHARACTER SKETCHES 

Colter and Fink are samples of the characters who sought the frontier under 
the stimulating influence of the fur trade, or to take advantage of the oppor- 
tunity to get beyond the restraint of law. 

JOHN colter's RACE FOR LIFE 

John Colter was a soldier with the Lewis and Clark expedition, and re- 
quested and received his discharge on his return to the Mandan villages, desiring 
to remain in the Indian country. He was the first to explore the headwaters of 
the Yellowstone. 

At one time he traveled over five hundred miles among the Indians, returning 
unharmed, but on another occasion he was robbed of all his clothing and of 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 169 

every means of defense and of subsistence and turned out on the prairie, with 
500 yards the start, and told to run ! 

He was followed by several hundred whooping, yelling savages, and outran 
them all, followed to the last by one Indian who stumbled and fell, when Colter 
turned on him and killed him with his own weapon. Thereafter he was on the 
prairie several days before he reached safety. 

MICKIE FINK, OUTLAW 

Mike Fink, or jMickie Phinck, as he usually wrote his own name, joined 
Ashley's expedition to the Yellowstone, in 1822. 

At Pittsburgh henvas barred from the turkey shoots, being an expert shot, 
and at St. Louis he had a court record for paring a negro's heel with a shot 
from his rifle, because he thought it would look better after such an operation. 

He had two chums, one named Carpenter and the other Talbot. It was their 
custom to entertain their associates by each in turn shooting a cup of whiskey 
from the other's head. 

Finally they quarreled, and in due time their reconciliation was announced, 
and Fink, as evidence of their renewed confidence in each other, suggested the 
cup of whiskey test. The first shot fell to Fink, and Carpenter took his place 
without flinching, though not without fear, for he knew his man. As Carpenter 
fell, shot through the forehead, Fink remarked: "Carpenter, you've spilled 
the whiskey." He then deliberately blew the smoke out of his rifle barrel, and, 
finally, as he felt compelled to say something, cursed the whiskey, cursed his 
rifle, and cursed himself. 

Later he boasted that he killed Carpenter purposely, and Talbot killed him 
on the spot. Talbot came to his death by drowning. 

The vigilance committees organized in Montana in connection with the de- 
velopment of the mining industries, disposed of a number of the lawless char- 
acters infesting this region, and the early courts at Bismarck convicted many 
and sent them to the penitentiary at Fort Madison, Iowa. 



CHAPTER XII 
THE CONQUEST OF THE MISSOURI— CONTINUED 

FORTY YEARS IX THE HANDS OF INDIAN TRADERS KENNETH m'KENZIE, "KING 

OF THE UPPER MISSOURI" FORT UNION ESTABLISHED FIRST STEAMBOATS ON 

THE UPPER MISSOURI FORTS CLARK, m'keNZIE, MORTIMER AND BUFORD— 

BATTLE OF FORT m'keNZIE THE USES AND ABUSES OF INTOXICATING LIQUOR 

IN THE FUR TRADE — THE SMALLPOX SCOURGE OF 1837, AND CHOLERA EPIDEMIC 
OF 1845 — BEAR RIB PAYS THE INDIAN PENALTY FOR TREASON. 

They are slaves who will not choose 

Hatred, scoffing and abuse, 

Rather than in silence shrink 

From the truth they needs must think : 

They are slaves who dare not be 

In the right with two or three. 

— James RusscH Lowell. 

Lewis and Clark, the explorers, as shown in Chapter \', Part One, found the 
natural inclination of the Indians disposed them to hospitality ; their first impulse 
being to offer food with a greeting in words of friendship for the white men. 
They were eager for trade that would enable them to obtain means of defense 
against other tribes, and the articles and implements essential to their comfort 
and development in Indian life ; but under the influence of the Indian trade, as jt 
was prosecuted, their disposition changed and their attitude generally became 
one of unrelenting hostility. 

For forty years the Upper Missouri region was without law, without the 
influence of schools or churches ; given over to an inordinate desire for gain, 
and to the unrestrained passions of men. Not until Dr. Walter A. Burleigh, 
and other Indian agents commenced the culture of grain, and the missionaries 
gained a foothold, was there the slightest advance toward civilization. 

•'the UPPER MISSOURI OUTFIT" 

Among the traders who joined Joseph Renville in the organization of the 
Columbia Fur Company, consolidated with the American Fur Company in 1827, 
to whom allusion has been made, were Kenneth McKenzie and William Laidlaw. 
The latter had charge of their business at Fort Tecumseh and vicinity, and the 
Upper Missouri was placed in charge of Kenneth McKenzie. Their organiza- 
tion was a part of the American Fur Company and was known as the Upper 
Missouri Outfit. Daniel Lamont was a member of this organization. Their 

170 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 171 

headquarters were at Fort Tecumseh, built in 1822, at the mouth of Bad River, 
moved to higher ground in 1832, and christened Fort Pierre. 

Kenneth McKenzie left St. Paul in the spring of 1828, with fifty men, to 
build a trading post at the mouth of the Yellowstone. The point selected for 
the post was on the north bank of the Missouri River, almost directly on the line 
between the present states of Montana and North Dakota, on the identical spot 
where Mondak, Mont., now stands. Mondak was named "Mon" for Montana 
and "dak'' for Dakota, established as a rival to Buford, and across the line in 
Montana in order to avoid the prohibition laws of North Dakota. The post 
was called Fort Union, as it was intended to bring all the lines of trade to a 
union at that point. The goods for the Upper Missouri Outfit were shipped 
annually from New York to St. Louis, and thence on, up the river by boats 
owned by the company, to Fort Pierre, Fort Union, and other Upper Missouri 
River points. 

Fort Union was 200 feet square ; the stockade built of logs i foot in diameter, 
12 feet in height, set perpendicularly, the lower end two feet in the ground. 
There were two block-house bastions, 12 feet square, pierced with loopholes, on 
diagonal corners of the fort. There was one opening, a gate of two leaves, 
12 feet wide, and in one of the leaves there was a small gate ^V^ by 5 feet. As 
described by Edwin T. Denig, for many years bookkeeper at the fort, in a letter 
to John James Audubon, the celebrated ornithologist, who visited it in the 
summer of 1843, and remained two months and four days in the vicinity: — 

"The fort was destroyed by fire, in 1831, and rebuilt that year, the bastions, 
30 feet high, being built of stone surmounted by a pyramid roof. There were 
two stories, and the upper one had a balcony for observation. A banquette 
extended around the inner wall. The entrance was large, and secured by a 
powerful gate, changed to a double gate in 1837, on account of the dangerous 
disposition of the Indians because of the smallpox epidemic. 

"On the opposite side of the square from the entrance was the house of the 
Ijourgeois, or master, a well-built, commodious two-storj' structure, with glass 
windows, fireplace, and other modern conveniences. Around the square were 
the barracks of the employees, the storehouses, workshops, stables, a cut stone 
powder-magazine capable of holding 50,000 pounds, and a reception room for the 
Indians. In the center of the court was a tall flag-staff, around which were the 
leathern tents of half-breeds in the service of the company. Near the flag-staff' 
stood one or two cannon trained upon the entrance of the fort. Somewhere 
inside of the inclosure was the famous distillery of 1833-34 (built, as will be 
seen, by McKenzie). All of the buildings were of cottonwood lumber, and 
everything was of unusually elaborate character." 

In connection with the description of the house it was said : — "In the upper 
story are at present located Mr. Audubon and his suite. Here from the pencils 
of Mr. Audubon and Mr. (Isaac) Spragiie emanate the splendid paintings and 
drawings of animals and plants which are the admiration of all, and the Indians 
regard them as marvelous and almost to be worshipped." 

Fort Union always had a large force of clerks, artisans, and others employed 
about the place, and was the most extensively equipped of any trading post. It 
was built for trade with the Assiniboines, as well as a distributing point. 

In May, 1867, the material used in the construction of this famous old trading 



172 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

post, was sold to Capt. William Galloway Rankin of the Thirteenth United 
States Infantry, then stationed at Fort Union, and used in the construction of 
Fort Buford. Charles Larpenteur, first mentioned in Part One in connection 
with buffalo hunting, who had been at Fort Union most of the time since 1833, 
engaged in the Indian trade, was the last trader at Fort Union, and traded that 
year 2,000 buffalo robes, 900 elk hides, 1,800 deer skins, and 1,000 wolf pelts; 
total value, $5,000. After Fort Union was dismantled, he built an adobe building 
at that point, 96 feet long, but finding it necessary to move to Buford, he built 
a log building there 120 feet in length. 

FORT BUFORD 

The Fort Buford reservation was extended to 30 miles square, by executive 
order promulgated through Headquarters Department of Dakota, July 16, 1868. 

In 1871, Alvin C. Leighton was appointed post trader at Fort Buford, 
arriving on the steamer Ida Reese, May 5, 1871 ; and May 8th, that year, the 
opposition stores were closed, and May 14th, Charles Larpenteur left on the 
steamer Andrew Ackley. 

KING OF THE UPPER MISSOURI 

Kenneth ^IcKenzie was fond of display, and wore a uniform of blue with 
gold braid. He was known as the "King of the Upper Missouri." At one time 
he ordered from England a coat of mail, but for what purpose never developed. 
His difficulties in trying to secure liquor, which he deemed absolutely essential 
to his trade, caused him to retire and engage in the liquor business at St. Louis, 
with a capital of $60,000 as his share of the profit from the Upper Missouri trade. 

During a trip to Europe he was represented by J. Archibald Hamilton, and 
was finally succeeded by Alexander Culbertson, in 1835. In 1845, new opposi- 
tion having developed, in the firm of Harvey, Premeau & Company, he returned 
to Fort Union and remained until the following spring. 

His son, Owen McKenzie, born of an Indian wife, developed considerable 
ability, but was dissipated, and was killed by Malcolm Clark on one of the 
company's boats near Fort Union, in 1863. He had been in charge of a trading 
post at the mouth of the White Earth River, an important point for trade, for a 
number of years. Dissatisfied with the action of Qark, who then represented 
the American Fur Company, an assault was made and he was killed in self- 
defense. 

THE YELLOWSTONE FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE UPPER MISSOURI 

Before the advent of the steamboat the furs had been sent down the river by 
mackinaws to St. Louis, where they were collected, weighed, repacked, and 
shipped by steamboat to New Orleans, and thence to New York. Here they 
were unpacked, made into bales, and shipped to Europe; excepting some of the 
finest, particularly the otter, for which China afforded the best market. 

McKenzie's success had been so great in opening up trade on the Upper Mis- 
souri, that he urged that a steamboat be built for that trade. The American Fur 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 173 

Company having adopted his recommendation, the "Yellowstone" was built at 
Louisville, Kentucky, in 1830, and left St. Louis on its first up-river trip April 
16, 1831, in command of Capt. B. Young, arriving at Fort Tecumseh, June 19th, 
and returning to St. Louis with a full cargo of furs. 

March 26, 1832, this vessel left on her second trip up the Missouri River, 
reaching Fort Tecumseh May 31st, where she remained several days, in the 
meantime the fort's location and name being changed to Fort Pierre, named for 
Pierre Chouteau, who was a passenger on the boat which went on to Fort Union. 
This was the first steamboat to reach the mouth of the Yellowstone River. She 
returned to Fort Pierre June 2Sth, having made a successful trip, and thereafter 
annual trips were made by American Fur Company steamboats to Fort Union. 

The Indians called the Yellowstone the "fire boat that walks on the water," 
and were so enthusiastic over the trip that they declared they would trade no 
more with the Hudson's Bay Company, which, up to that time, had the major 
portion of the trade of the Blackfeet and Assiniboines. 

STEAMER "ASSINIBOINE" FIRST STEAMER ABOVE THE YELLOWSTONE 

The steamer "Assiniboine" accompanied the steamer "Yellowstone" on. its 
annual trip to Fort Union in 1833, having Prince Maximilian for a passenger. She 
continued her trip some distance above the Yellowstone but was forced into win- 
ter quarters by low water, and during the winter her crew built Fort Assiniboine. 
She was burned at Sibley Island in May, 1835, on her down trip. 

FORT ASSINIBOINE 

Fort Assiniboine, built by the crew of the steamer Assiniboine in enforced 
winter quarters, was occupied that winter by Daniel Lamont, whose party secured 
in trade from the Indians 179 red foxes, 1,646 prairie foxes, 18 cross foxes, 74 
badgers, 269 muskrats, 89 white wolves, 196 white hares, 5 swan skins, 4,200 
buffalo robes, 37 dressed buffalo cow skins, 12 dressed calf skins, 450 salted 
tongues, 3,500 pounds of dried meat. The fort was abandoned in the spring 
of 1835, and was burned by the Indians. Its exact location is not now known, but 
it marked the first advance of steam navigation above the mouth of the Yel- 
lowstone. 

THE ANNUAL STEAMBOAT 

For the nearly forty years that Fort Union was maintained as a trading post, 
the arrivals of the annual boat were events which were considered worthy of 
detailed description by Capt. Hiram M. Chittenden in his "History of the Amer- 
ican Fur Trade" : "On these occasions," he says, "the dreary routine of the 
trader's life suddenly changed to unwonted activity. The long looked-for annual 
boat was in sight ! — the great event of the year — with news from the outside 
world, and all of the business matters that made up the purpose of the journey. 

"The fort manned its guns (for it had several small cannon mounted in the 
bastions), and a hearty salute was fired. The boat vigorously responded. Every- 
body about the fort crowded to the scene, the bourgeois, for whom a respectful 
space was made in the crowd, and the clerks, artisans, storekeepers, groups of 



174 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

free trappers, and bands of Indians, forming in all as wild and motley a crowd 
as a boat ever met in port. 

■Immediately upon landing, and even before the interchange of salutations 
was complete, the unloading of the cargo was begun. No time was to be lost in 
the navigation of the Missouri. Should the spring rise go down before the return 
of the boat, she would have to stay up all the year, as happened with the steamer 
Assiniboine in 1834-5. 

"Night and day the roustabouts (deck hands) of the boat and the engagees 
(employees) of the fort, were busy carrying off the goods and carrying on the 
furs. A banquet on the boat, and another with the bourgeois, completed the fes- 
tivities, and almost before the denizens of the fort had taken their eyes from 
the strange visitor, she hauled in her lines, and was speeding back to St. Louis." 

From St. Louis to Fort Union was 1,760 miles. From a record' kept by 
Charles Larpenteur from 1841 to 1847 the average speed of the steamboats from 
St. Louis to Fort Union was forty-four miles a day for the up trip and 123 miles 
for the down trip; the time for the up trip ranging from eighty days in 1841 to 
forty days in 1847, and for the down trip from thirty-one days in 1845 to four- 
teen days in 1847. On the down trip in 1832 the steamer Yellowstone carried 
1,300 packs of robes and beaver. The weight of beaver shipped July 11 that year 
was 10,230 lb., and they expected to take on 120 to 130 packs from Pierre. Lucien 
Fontenelle left Fort Union that year on September 24th with 6,000 lb. of beaver 
from the Yellowstone, shipped in mackinaws as stated in Chapter XI. 

FORT CLARK 

Fort Clark was established in 1830 by James Kipp — previously mentioned as 
having also I)uilt Tilton's Fort — under the direction of Kenneth McKenzie, for 
the jMandan trade. It was on the right or south bank of the Missouri River, 
fifty-five miles above the Northern Pacific Railroad bridge at Bismarck, on a bluff, 
in an angle of the river, on the opposite side of the river from Fort Mandan — 
built by Lewis and Clark in 1804 — and was named for Governor William Clark, 
the Captain Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The fort was 132 by 147 
feet, substantially built, and one of the most important posts on the Missouri 
River, aside from T'ort L'nion. 

Having been abandoned by the traders, who had moved to Fort Berthold, it 
was in the possession of the Arikaras in 1862, when, most of the warriors being 
aljsent on their winter hunt, it was attacked by the Sioux and entirely destroyed. 
The last vestige of the Mandan villages, later known as the "Ree"' \'illage, having 
disappeared, the .-\rikaras joined the Mandans and Gros-\ entres (Hidatsa) at 
Fort Berthold. 

FORT PI EG A.N 

In 1831 James Kipp built Fort I'iegan for the Blackfeet trade, at the mouth 
of the Marias River, and when he went down the river with his furs, the next 
spring, it was burned by the Indians. 



EARLY HISTORY OF XORTH DAKOTA 175 

FORT m'keNZIE 

Through an interpreter, Jacob Berger, who had become acquainted with the 
Blackfeet when in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company, Mr. McKenzie suc- 
ceeded in getting the Blackfeet and Assiniboines to make a treaty of peace. The 
treaty is dated November 29, 183 1, and was made at Fort Union. McKenzie 
represented the Blackfeet, who had been at war for many years with the Assini- 
boines, and was mentioned in the treaty as Governor McKenzie, ambassador of 
the Blackfeet, Piegans and Bloods, and the Indian parties were designated ''Lords 
of the soil extending from the banks of the great waters unto the tops of the 
mountains upon which the heavens rest," and they solemnly covenanted to "make, 
preserve and cherish a firm and lasting peace, that so long as the waters run or the 
grass grows, they may hail each other as brothers, and smoke the calumet of 
friendship and security, and forever live in peace and as brothers in one happy 
family." Tahatka, also known as Gauche, was a party to this treaty. 

As a result of this treaty, in 1831, David D. Mitchell established Fort 
McKenzie, six miles above the mouth of the Marias River and a few miles only 
from the point which afterwards became Fort Benton, the head of navigation on 
the Missouri River. It was built in the regulation manner, 140 feet square, with 
an exceptionally strong gate, and stood 120 feet back from the river. 

The returns from k'ort McKenzie for the season of 1834-5 were 9,000 buffalo 
robes, 1,020 beaver, 40 otter, 2,800 muskrat, 180. wolves, 200 red foxes, 1,500 
prairie dogs, 19 bears, 390 buft'alo tongues brought down to Fort Union by keel 
boats and mackinaws with a force of thirty-five men. 

From the first the fort promised excellent results, and was maintained until 
1843, when, through tiie wanton murder of three Indians by inmates of the post 
(Chardon and Harvey), its abandonment was forced, and its site is now known 
as Brule Bottom. Harvey murdered the wounded and scalped them, and forced 
the squaws in the fort to execute the scalp dance about their remains. After- 
wards Harvey deliberately murdered one of his co-employees, at Fort Union, and 
flourishing his gun, which was yet smoking, shouted : "I, Alexander Harvey, have 
killed the Spaniard. If there are any friends of his that want to take it up, let 
them come on !" 

m.^ximili.^n's visit 

The annual boat wiiich arrived at Fort Union in 1833 brought a distinguished 
visitor in the person of Maximilian, Prince of Wied. There was accompanying 
him an artist of the name of Charles Bodmer. They were visiting at Fort 
McKenzie when a number of Blackfeet, or Piegans, a tribe of the Blackfeet con- 
federacy, were encamped about the post. 

I!.'\TTLE OF FORT m'keNZIE 

The Piegans had been drinking heavily of intoxicating liquors, and singing 
most of the night, and early in the morning of August 28, 1833, they were attacked 
by the Assiniboines without the slightest warning, and many of them killed before 
they could be aroused from their slumbers. The gate of the post was thrown 
open, and they were hurried into the fort as rapidly as possible, though some 
were killed at the very gates before the defense was fully organized, the women 



176 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

having blockaded the gate by crowding into the narrow passage-way with their 
burden of horse and camp equipment of every nature. 

Maximilian thus describes the thrilling scene: "As fast as the Piegans got 
in, .they mounted the palisades and opened fire. When it was found that the 
attack was intended for the Blackfeet, and not for the whites, Mitchell ordered 
the men to stop firing. Two of the employees, however, persisted in firing, and 
went outside and killed a nephew of the principal chief. 

"While all of this was passing, the court yard of the fort presented a very 
strange scene. A number of wounded men, women, and children were laid or 
placed against the walls ; others in a deplorable condition were pulled about by 
their relatives amid tears and lamentations. White Bufl^alo, whom I have men- 
tioned, and who received a wound in the back of his head, was carried in this 
manner, amid singing, howling, and crying. They rattled the schischikue (sic) 
in his ears, that the evil spirit might not overcome him, and gave him brandy to 
drink. He, himself, though stupefied, sang without intermission, and would not 
give himself up to the evil spirits. Otsequa-Stomik, an old man of my acquaint- 
ance, was wounded in the knee by a ball which a woman cut out with a pen- 
knife, during which operation he did not betray the least symptom of pain. 
Natan-Otanee, a handsome young man with whom we became acquainted on our 
visit to Kutonaoi, was suffering dreadfully from severe wounds. Several Indians, 
especially young women, were likewise wounded. We endeavored to assist the 
wounded, and Mr. Mitchell distributed balsam, and linen for bandages, but very 
little could be done. Instead of suffering the wounded who were exhausted by 
loss of blood to take some rest, their relatives continuously pulled them about, 
sounded large bells, and rattled their medicines or amulets, among which were 
the bear's paws which White Bufifalo wore on his breast. 

"Only a spectator of this extraordinary scene could form any idea of the con- 
fusion and noise, which was increased by the loud report of the musketry, the 
moving backward and forward of the people carrying powder and ball, and the 
turmoil occasioned by about twenty horses shut up in the fort." 

The main body of the Blackfeet was ten miles away, and messengers having 
been sent hurriedly for their help (to quote from Maximilian), "They came 
galloping in. grouped from three to twenty together, their horses covered with 
foam, and they, themselves, in the finest of apparel, with all kinds of ornaments 
and arms, bows and quivers on their backs, guns in their hands, furnished with 
their medicines, with feathers on their heads ; some had splendid crowns of black 
and white eagle feathers, and a large hood of feathers hanging down behind, 
sitting on fine panther skins lined with red ; the upper part of their bodies partly 
naked, with a long strip of wolf skin thrown across their shoulders, and carry- 
ing shields adorned with feathers and pieces of colored cloth. A truly original 
sight." 

The Assiniboines, who proved to be the best fighters, finally withdrew toward 
the Bear Paw Mountains, only retiring when their ammunition was exhausted. 

MAXIM ILIAX, PRINCE OF WIED 

Alexander Philip Maximilian, Prince of Wied (Neuwied), was a major-gen- 
eral in the army and a scientific author of distinction in Rhenish Prussia. He 




HORSE RACING OF SIOUX INDIANS 

From a painting by Cliailes Bodmer from "Travels to the Interior of Nortli America in 

1833-3-4," by Maximilian, Prince of Wied, 1843. 




FORT ilACKEXZIE, AUG L.ST 2S, 1833 

From a painting by Charles Bodmer from "Travels to the Interior of North America in 

1832-3-4," by Maximilian, Prince of Wied, 1843. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 177 

came to North America as a naturalist in 1832, arriving in Boston on the Fourth 
of July, and returned to Europe on a Havre packet from New York on July 16, 
1834. His "Travels in the Interior of North America," in three volumes, trans- 
lated from the German by Hannibal Evans Lloyd, were published in 1843. He 
brought with him a skillful illustrator, Charles Bodmer, a Swiss artist, from 
whose sketches plates were engraved and reproduced in the work. 

From the translated preface of Maximilian to his great work, the following 
data are taken: At St. Louis on April 10, 1833, the party joined a fur-trading 
expedition on its annual trip by the steamer Yellowstone to the posts of the Upper 
Missouri, by the advice of Gen. William Clark and Maj. Benjamin O'Fallon. 
On the 22d they were at Fort Leavenworth, and on the 2d of May reached Belle- 
vue, just below the present Omaha. May i8th they had the first sight of buffalo, 
and arrived at Fort Pierre, the company's main post, among the Sioux the last 
of May. 

At Fort Pierre the travelers were transferred from the "Yellowstone" to the 
"Assiniboine," a more recently-built boat and larger, but with a lighter draft. The 
description of this, "the first steamer above the Yellowstone," on a former page, 
embraces the item that the prince was on board. Passing the Arikara villages, 
they steamed into the land of the Mandans and the Minetarees (Hidatsa), where, 
on June i8th, they landed at the company's post. Fort Clark, remaining there one 
day, and then moving up to the mouth of the Yellowstone River, where Fort 
Union was reached on the 24th of June. Two weeks were passed at Fort Union, 
and then they embarked on a keel-boat, and continued their journey to Fort Mc- 
Kenzie at the mouth of the Marias River among the Blackfeet. During their stay 
there of two months, they were initiated into the mysteries of the fur trade, 
and witnessed the battle between the Blackfeet (Piegans) and Assiniboines, as 
described in notes quoted, and Maximilian observes that the song of the Assini- 
boine warriors resembled that of the Russian soldiers heard in the winter of 
1813-1814. 

In company with Toussaint Charbonneau, Lewis and Clark's former inter- 
preter, they attended various cerem-onies. dances and feasts, sketched many por- 
traits of the chiefs, and studied the manners and customs. The succeeding winter 
was spent at Fort Clark, and on the breaking up of the ice the following spring 
they went down the river, and May i8th were at Fort Leavenworth. Coming 
down in the Assiniboine, there was a fire on the steamer (at Sibley Island, near 
Bismarck), and much of their collection, which was uninsured, was destroyed, 
in view of which contingency the prince advises other travelers to insure their 
collections. They went east, homeward bound, by way of Niagara Falls and 
New York. 

In the author's preface he declares that the works of American writers on 
this subject, with the exception of Cooper and Washington Irving, "cannot be 
taken into account," as in writing for their countrymen they "take it for granted 
that their readers are well acquainted with the country." He has "endeavored 
to supply the deficiency to the best of his ability," but "a faithful and vivid pic- 
ture of these countries and the original inhabitants can never be placed before 
the eye without the aid of a fine portfolio of plates by the hand of a skillful 
artist." 

The journal of Alexander Culbertson, then a young fur-trade clerk, confirms 



178 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

these interesting reminiscences of Prince Maximilian. Culbertson accompanied 
the prince from Fort Union to Fort McKenzie, and says the prince was from 
"Coblentz on the Rhine." Kenneth McKenzie, subsequently, visited him at his 
palace at Coblentz. He was in this country hunting for experience and oppor- 
tunity to view frontier life, and with his presence at the battle of Fort. McKen- 
zie, and the hardships endured in his camp at Fort Clark the following winter, it 
may be assumed that he got his full measure of experience, which enabled him to 
write so entertainingly and accurately of the Indians. He also published a book 
entitled "A Systematic View of Plants Collected on a Tour on the Missouri 
River," and his library and collections are among the chief treasures of Neuwied. 
He died in 1867, at the age of eighty-five. 

CHARDON .^ND HARVEY 

Francois A. Chardon had charge of Fort McKenzie for some years, and his 
colored servant having been killed by the Indians, he planned to attack them when 
they should next come to the post to trade. Accordingly, Alexander Harvey, 
one of the most desperate men in the fur trade, as has been shown, acting in con- 
cert with Chardon, trained the post cannon on the gate, and was to fire the 
moment the gate was opened, when it was expected the Indians would flee in a 
panic and abandon the rich furs which they had brought for trade. The gate 
was thrown open, Chardon began firing, but Harvey's shot being delayed a 
moment, the Indians scattered and but three were killed and three wounded. 

Chardon scarcely dared go beyond the gates of the fort after that, and the 
post was finally abandoned ; the company feeling obliged to dispense with the 
services of Harvey, who established an opposition company known as Harvey, 
Premeau & Company, in 1845, as stated, with headquarters at Fort Defiance, 
previously mentioned as located six miles above the Big Bend of the Missouri, 
and continued in business several years. 

The uneasiness of the Blackfeet, however, was attributed by Laidlaw of the 
Upper Missouri Outfit, who was then at Fort Union, to "certain retrenchments 
of liquor heretofore given them in their ceremonies, the discontinuance of which 
has become absolutely necessary for the better regulation of that post." 

Sublette's fort william 

In 1833 McKenzie's success had been so great that furs valued at upwards of 
$500,000 were shipped from the Upper Missouri. This led to competition, and 
that fall William L. Sublette and Robert Campbell, spoken of in relation to a 
division of the American Fur Company, established a new post at the mouth of 
the Yellowstone on almost the identical spot where Fort Buford was later built. 
They put in an immense stock of goods, hired popular clerks and interpreters, 
who had formerly worked for McKenzie, and a fierce rivalry was the result; 
MeKenzie giving his men authority to use any means necessary to hold the trade, 
and to pay any price necessary to obtain it. As high as $12 was paid for beaver 
skins, the usual price being $3, and smuggled liquors were freely used by both 
contestants, with the result that Fort William, as the post was called, was aban- 
doned the following year. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 179 

Fort William on the Missouri was completed on Christmas day, 1833. It was 
150 feet front, 130 deep. The stockade was of cottonwood logs 18 feet in length, 
hewn on three sides, set three feet in the ground. The trader's house was a 
double cabin, 18 by 20 feet, with a passage between. The store and warehouse 
were 40 feet in length, 18 feet wide. There were two bastions, a carpenter shop, 
blacksmith shop, ice house, meat house, etc. It was later moved back from the 
river on account of the rise cutting away the bank, called Fort Mortimer, and 
occupied under that name by Fox, Livingston & Company, alluded to in connec- 
tion with Fort George in 1842. 

LIQUOR FOR THE YELLOWSTO.VE TR.\DE 

In accordance with the act of Congress of July 9, 1832, prohibiting the intro- 
duction of liquors into the Indian country, inspectors were placed at Fort Leav- 
enworth to prevent shipments by boat. The boats which went up the river in 
1 83 1, and the early boat in 1832, had been untrammeled. Sublette and Campbell 
prevailed upon Gen. William Clark to allow them to ship liquors, and a like privi- 
lege was granted to Mr. Chouteau, of the American Fur Company, but his 
shipment of 1,400 gallons of liquor was confiscated at Fort Leavenworth, and 
other shipments were intercepted and confiscated. 

In 1833 Kenneth IMcKenzie, having failed in an attempt to get a considerable 
amount of liquor by the inspectors, is quoted as saying: "They kicked and 
knocked about everything they could find, and even cut through our bales of 
blankets, which had never been undone since they left England." 

THE DISTILLERY AT FORT UNION 

He could scarcely rest under his failure to secure into.xicants, which he knew 
the opposition possessed, and against the advice of the officers of the American 
Fur Company, who were certain to be held responsible for his acts, he estab- 
lished a distillery at Fort L'nion in 1833, arguing that to manufacture liquor in 
the Indian country was not equivalent to introducing it, and, therefore, was not 
a violation of the law. He shipped men to Iowa, and set them at work raising 
corn for his still, and in the meantime secured a supply from the Mandans for 
present needs, and succeeded in making, as he expressed it, ''as fine a liquor as 
need be drunk, from the fruits of the countrj'." 

He was a lavish entertainer, and took great pride in his post, and when a 
party of opposition traders visited him, he entertained them in his accustomed 
manner, showing them all of the features of the post, including his distillery, 
dilating on its merits, but when they took leave he refused to sell them liquor, 
and charged them traders' prices for their supplies. This ofTended them, and 
one of them, Capt. Nathaniel Wyeth, noted for his expedition to the Columbia 
River, made complaint on his arrival at St. Louis, which resulted in the destruc- 
tion of the distillery, and it was with great difficulty that the company retained 
its license. 

To meet this evasion of the law. Congress passed the drastic legislation of 
1834, under which steamboats, or any other means of conveyance, might be con- 
fiscated if found carrying liquors into the Indian country, and prohibiting its 
manufacture. 



180 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Illustrating the use of alcohol in the Indian trade, Charles Larpenteur relates 
that he went to an Indian camp when it was so cold that his mules were frozen 
to death in the shelter provided for his team, and the Indians were suffering for 
the necessaries of life, and yet he secured i8o buffalo robes for five gallons of 
alcohol, on which the whole camp got drunk twice. He obtained thirty more 
robes for "goods," there being no more liquor, and hardly any robes, left in 
camp. 

As George Bancroft, the historian, says, in speaking of the influence of 
whisky on the Indians: "Whisky as applied to the noble savage is a wonderful 
civilizer. A few years of it reduces him to a subjection more complete than 
arms, and accomplishes in him a humility which religion can never achieve. Some 
things men will do for Christ, for country, for wife and children ; there is nothing 
that an Indian will not do for whisky." 

In the attack by the Indians on Fort McKenzie, the defenders managed to 
get some alcohol to the Indians, and by that means stopped the battle, and on 
another occasion when the Indians became troublesome at Fort Union, they were 
supplied with whisky mixed with laudanum, which put them all to sleep, but for- 
tunately none were killed by the experiment. 

ILLICIT TR.-\DE AT FORT WILLIAM 

Notwithstanding the strict laws and rigid inspection, Sublette & Campbell 
had been able to secure all the liquor necessary for their trade, and in opening 
their post at Fort William gave a striking example of its use among the Indians. 
Charles Larpenteur, who was in charge of the liquor sales, says : 

"It was not until night that we got ready to trade. It must be remembered 
that liquor was the principal and most profitable article of trade, although it was 
strictly prohibited by law, and all boats on the Missouri were thoroughly searched 
at Fort Leavenworth. Notwithstanding this, Mr. Sublette managed to pass 
through what he wanted. * * * The liquor trade started at dark, and soon 
the singing and yel'ing commenced. The Indians were all locked up in the fort, 
for fear that some might go to Fort Union, which was about 2J/2 miles distant. 
Imagine the noise! Five hundred Indians with their squaws, all drunk as they 
could be, locked up in that small space! * * * Gauche (the Indian chief) 
had provided himself with a pint cup, which I know he did not let go during the 
whole spree, and every now and then he would rush into the store with his 
cup, and order it filled, and to 'hurry up'. 

"The debauch continued during that entire night and well into the next day, 
Gauche being the leading figure unlil the end, while Indians in stupor from drink 
lay in every direction. 

"Back in the mountains whisky was sold at $5 a pint, but here at the opening 
the price was $1 per pint. Salt and sugar, and later coffee, were the same price." 

SMUGGLING LIQUOR 

Writing to Gen. Henry Atkinson in 1819, Thomas Biddle observed: "So 
violent is the attachment of the Indian for it (intoxicating liquor) that he who 
gives most is sure to obtain the furs, while should anyone attempt to trade with- 



II 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 181 

out it, he is sure of losing ground with his antagonist. No bargain is ever made 
without it." 

In 1843 the Omega was the American Fur Company's annual boat, carrying 
supplies for the Yellowstone trade. Joseph A. Sire w^as master, with Joseph 
La Barge at the wheel. John James Audubon, the celebrated ornithologist, was 
a passenger, one of a party of scientists. The boat carried a supply of ardent 
spirits for the use of the party, under permit from the Indian authorities, and 
the usual supply for the Indian trade, in defiance of the laws governing inter- 
course with the Indians. 

Captain Sire had anticipated inspection at Fort Leavenworth, but they escaped 
that post, and at Bellevue there was no inspector, but at Hart's Bottom, a few 
miles above Bellevue, Capt. John H. Burgwin, of the First United States Dra- 
goons, brought the boat to by a shot across the bows, and presented his creden- 
tials as inspector. Mr. Audubon presented his card, and expressed a desire to 
see the commandant of the military camp about four miles distant, and Captain 
Burgwin courteously accompanied him to the camp. While he was thus engaged. 
Captain Sire prepared for inspection. There was a track around the boat, in 
the hold, and cars for moving heavy freight. The liquor covered by the sci- 
entists' permit was freely exposed, and its quality tested, but the traders' supplies 
were loaded on the cars, and with muffled wheels, silently moved from one part 
of the boat to another, while the inspectors were peering into the dimly lighted 
corners, to make sure that nothing was escaping their attention, and the boat 
passed on with a clean bill. The trick, however, was discovered and could not 
be used again. 

The next year, 1844, the Nimrod made the annual trip with the same officers. 
The Indian agent at Bellevue made a most rigorous inspection. Every package 
was broken and every bale pierced by sharp pointed rods. While this was going 
on a consignment of flour in barrels for the trader at Bellevue was being unloaded 
and placed in the warehouse, and that night, while the good man slept, the barrels 
were reloaded, and the boat proceeded up the river without the usual clearance. 
The liquor was packed in the barrels of flour. 

Hiram M. Chittenden, in his "History of the American Fur Trade of the 
Far West," says: "The depths of rascality into which this traffic (in liquor) fell, 
might well stagger belief, were they not substantiated by the most positive evi- 
dence. The liquor was generally imported in the form of alcohol, because of the 
smaller compass for the same amount of poison. It was stored in every con- 
ceivable form of package. In overland journeys it was generally carried in short, 
flat kegs, which would rest conveniently on the sides of pack mules. When car- 
ried by water, it was concealed in flour barrels, in bales of merchandise or any- 
where it would most likely escape discovery. * * * jj^ retailing the poisonous 
stufif — a pure article never found its way to the Indians — the degree of deception 
could not have been carried further. A baneful and noxious substance to begin 
with, it was retailed with the most systematic fraud, often amounting to sheer 
exchange of nothing for the goods of the Indian. It was the policy of the shrewd 
trader to first get his victim so intoxicated that he could no longer drive a good 
bargain. The Indian, becoming more and more greedy for liquor, would yield 
up all he possessed for an additional cup or two. The voracious trader, not sat- 
isfied with selling his liquor at a profit of many thousand per cent, would now 



182 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

cheat in quantity. As he filled the cup, which was the standard measure, he 
would push in his big thumb and diminish its capacity by one-third. Sometimes 
he would substitute another cup with bottom thickened by running tallow into 
it until it was one-third full. He would also dilute the liquor until, as the Indian's 
senses became more and more befogged, he would treat him to water, pure and 
simple." 

Later on, the difficulties of obtaining intoxicating liquor increased to such a 
degree that coffee was used to a great extent to take its place. Pots of coffee 
were kept ready for use, and with sugar, was almost as efficacious in composing 
the Indian's mind and disposing him to liberality in trade as alcohol, with none 
of its evil effects. 

NATUR.\L DISLIKE OF THE ARIK.VRA.S AND CROWS 

It will be remembered that Lewis and Clark were surprised to find that the 
Arikaras indignantly refused their offer of intoxicating liquors. 

Charles Larpenteur states that the Crows in 1833 roamed over the prairies in 
considerable bands, and thus describes their attitude toward the liquor question 
as he observed it the next day after a trade, as a visit for that purpose was called : 
"They had just made their trade at the fort, one day's march from where we 
were. The Crows did not drink then, and for many years remained sober. It was 
not until a few years ago, when they were driven out of their country by the 
Sioux, and became a part of the tribes on the Missouri, that they took to drinking 
with the Assiniboines. As they did not drink, their trade was all in substantial 
goods, which kept them always well-dressed and extremely rich in horses ; so it 
was really a beautiful sight to see that tribe move." 

Like other tribes, when the curse of intoxicating liquors became fastened 
upon the Crows, their riches, their homes, and their pride disappeared. 

IN MILITARY AND CIVIL LIFE 

In later days a visit to the military trading posts would have shown similar 
frauds, equally disreputable, practiced upon United States soldiers, with a view 
to separating them from their money. Soldiers in drunken stupor might be seen 
lying around the trader's store, reminding one of the dead upon a battlefield. 
The proceeds from the pay-table having been squandered, usually within two or 
three days, by a large percentage of the soldiers, an era of temperance and good 
order would prevail until the next pay day. 

In civil life frauds upon those who habitually linger around retail liquor 
stores after pay day are quite as pronounced. They may be held in check, some- 
times, by municipal restraint, but the result is the same. 

From its earliest history the use of intoxicating liquor has proven harmful, 
demoralizing and disgusting, in its general results. There is no need to dwell 
on the suffering of widows and orphans, or even to recall the miserable wrecks 
and tragedies which come to one's notice during the course of an ordinary human 
life. It is enough to know that there is no place in the employ of great industries 
for the man who uses intoxicating liquors. He is not a safe man in any official 
position, and business interests under his management are almost certainly 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 183 

doomed to failure. The life insurance companies reject him as a risk ; he is looked 
upon with disfavor in society, and is at a disadvantage in every walk of life that 
is open to him. Maximilian, in his account of the great smallpox scourge, speaks 
of the enervating influence of ardent spirits. 

MORTALITY AMONG THE INDIANS — THE SCOURGE OF 1837 

The smallpox scourge of 1837, which was variously estimated by the writers 
of that period to have destroyed from 60,000 to 150,000 Indians — the true figures 
from later information being about seventeen thousand — originated from a case 
on the steamer St. Peter, the annual boat of the American Fur Company, on its 
way up the Missouri to Fort Union in June of that year. Every possible means 
was adopted to keep the Indians away from the boat, but knowing that it was 
loaded with supplies for them, they were certain that these efforts were part of 
a plan to defraud. At Fort Clark, then in charge of Francois A. Chardon, a 
Mandan chief stole a blanket from a watchman on the boat who was dying with 
the disease, and though offered a new blanket and pardon for his offense, the 
infected blanket could not be recovered and the contagion was spread by this 
means. 

Jacob Halsey, an extremely dissipated man, who was in charge of Fort 
Union, and was returning from a temporary absence, was a passenger on the 
boat, and although he had been vaccinated, was sick with the disease on his 
arrival at Fort Union. One of his clerks, Edwin T. Denig, and an Indian also had 
the disease, whereupon it was determined to adopt heroic measures for defense, 
"and have it all over with in time for the fall trade.'" Accordingly, thirty squaws 
stopping at Fort Union were vaccinated with the real smallpox virus from the 
person of Halsey, and a few days later twenty-seven of them were stricken with 
smallpo.x. 

Entire Indian villages had been exposed while crowding around the boat, 
and Indians from the boat, or who had visited it, went to the Blackfeet. Assini- 
boine. and other tribes, and when the epidemic was at its height, the Indians came 
in from the chase for the fall trade, crowding about the fort in spite of every 
effort to keep them away. 

The contagion began to spread about the middle of June, and raged as long 
as there were Indians who were not immune to attack. The victims were seized 
with severe pains in the head and back, and death resulted generally in a few 
hours, the disease taking its most malignant form. In the words of an eye- 
witness of the scenes : "In whatever direction we go, we see nothing hut melan- 
choly wrecks of human life. The tents are still standing on every hill, but no 
rising smoke announces the presence of human beings, and no sounds but the 
croaking of the raven, and the howling of the wolf, interrupt the fearful silence." 

Henry Boiler, who was eight years engaged in trade on the Missouri River, 
in his book entitled "Among the Indians," states that in one family all had died 
save one babe, and as there was no one to care for that it was placed alive in the 
arms of its dead mother, and, wrapped with her in her burial robes, laid on the 
scaffold, the Indian method of burying the dead. 

Prince Maximilian is quoted as writing at the time of the scourge : "The 
rlestroying angel has visited the unfortunate sons of the wilderness with terrors 



184 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

never before known, and has converted the extensive hunting-grounds, as well 
as the peaceful settlements of these tribes, into desolate and boundless ceme- 
teries * * * The warlike spirit which but lately animated the several tribes, 
and but a few months ago gave reason to apprehend the breaking out of a raging 
war, is broken. The mighty warriors are now the prey of the greedy wolves, 
and the few survivors, in utter despair, throw themselves upon the whites, who, 
however, can do little for them. The vast preparations for the protection of the 
frontier are superfluous; another hand has undertaken the defense of the white 
inhabitants of the frontier, and the funeral torch that lights the redman to his 
dreary grave, has become the auspicious star of the advancing settler and the 
roving trader of the white race." 

In the translator's preface to Maximilian's "Travels in the Interior of North 
America," may be found a letter from the prince, dated New Orleans, June 6, 
1838, in which he bears corroborative testimony to the efforts of the company's 
officers to retard the progress of the plague. He says that the smallpox was com- 
municated to the Indians by a person who was on board the steamboat which ran 
up the previous summer to the mouth of the Yellowstone River, to carry both the 
Government presents and the goods for the barter trade of the fur dealers; and 
the translator, Hannibal E. Lloyd, adds that it was the American Fur Company's 
steamboat St. Peter which carried the annual outfit and supplied the Missouri 
River forts, and that Larpenteur, in charge of Fort L^nion, says the vessel arrived 
June 24, 1837; that the officers could not prevent intercourse between the Indians 
and the vessel, although they exerted themselves to the utmost. 

The smallpox epidemic was the direct result of the demoralizing influence of 
the use of intoxicating liquors. There was neglect on the boat which was mak- 
ing its way into the heart of the Indian country, and criminal disregard of danger, 
and neglect on the part of the authorities at Fort LTnion. There was not a delib- 
erate purpose to murder the Indian families vaccinated with the smallpox virus, 
and "have it over," but the result would have been the same had that been the 
case. Alfred Cummings, United' States superintendent of Indian afifairs, in 
reporting the result of investigations on his trip to the Upper Missouri tribes in 
1855, said of the smallpox scourge of 1837 : "Every Indian camp from the Big 
Bend of the Missouri to the headwaters of the Columbia and Puget Sound was 
a scene of utter despair. To save families from the torture of the loathsome 
disease, fathers slew their children, and in many instances inflicted death upon 
themselves with the same bloody knife. Maddened by their fears, they rushed 
into the waters for relief, and many perished by their own hands, gibbeted on the 
trees which surrounded their lodges." 

With reckless abandon, born of the excessive use of intoxicating liquors and 
of ignorance, the Indians took no precautions against the disease, which was 
allowed to -run its course. Some blamed the whites for introducing it and 
threatened vengeance, while others regarded it a judgment of the Great Spirit 
for their warfare upon the whites, who, they then realized, were their true 
friends. 

The Sioux suffered less than other Indians, for the reason that they scattered, 
and the families isolated themselves as much as possible. The smallpox again 
prevailed among the Indians in 1856, but to a much less alarming extent. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 185 

CHOLERA IN 1845 

In 1845 cholera prevailed throughout the West, on the Great Lakes, and on the 
Missouri River steamers, and to some extent at the trading posts, and in Indian 
villages. There were many deaths among the men on the steamboats, but cholera 
cannot abide where cleanliness and fresh air are the rule, and it was quickly 
stamped out. 

A COUNTRY WITHOUT LAWS 

A lawless condition, as has been said, prevailed on the Upper Missouri for 
forty years, from its occupaWon by the American fur traders in 1822 until the 
organization of Dakota Territory in 1861. There was nothing to restrain the 
evil propensities of men. Theoretically, the laws of Louisiana, Missouri, Minne- 
sota, and Nebraska had been successively extended over the country, but there 
was no means of enforcement, and the United States laws governing intercourse 
with the Indians were not obeyed. 

Murders were the frequent results of envy, jealousy, hatred, malice, or the 
excessive use of intoxicating liquors, and generally speaking, no punishment was 
attempted beyond an occasional reprisal. The condition grew from bad to 
worse from year to year and when Fox, Livingston & Company, known as the 
"Union Fur Confederacy," retired, in 1843, they left fifty or more lawless charac- 
ters in the Indian country. Incidents were numerous of murders from one cause 
or another, causing but a passing comment. 

MASSACRE OF THE DESCHAMPS 

The Deschamp family consisted of the parents, ten children, and a nephew. 
Francois Deschamp, Sr., was accused of killing Governor Robert Semple, of the 
Selkirk Colony, June 16, 1816, as related in Chapter VII, Part I, after he was 
wounded by Cuthbert Grant; of robbing and murdering others wounded in that 
affair; of having twice robbed Fort Union, and of being concerned' in numerous 
other crimes. His son, Francois, Jr., was the interpreter at Fort Union, and had 
interfered with the family relations of Baptiste Gardepe, another employee of 
the fort, who had demanded satisfaction of the Deschamp family, and they had 
made several attempts to kill him. Finally a conspiracy was formed at Fort Union 
to kill both father and son, and in accordance with the arrangements, Gardepe 
killed the elder Deschamp with a blow from a rifle, completing the murder with 
a knife, while the young man was merely wounded. This was in July. 1833. 
There were then about seventy men at Fort Union, and a number of half-blood 
families at Fort William, where the Deschamps resided, and where some of the 
men from Fort Union lived ; Fort William having been abandoned by the 
opposition company. 

During a carousal following the departure of the annual boat June 28, 1836, 
Madame Deschamp aroused the vengeance of her sons by the taunt that if they 
were men, they would avenge the death of their father, whereupon they killed 
Jack Rem, whose family hurried to Fort Union, and a party was raised and sup- 
plied with arms by McKenzie, who surrounded the Deschamp house, and finally 



186 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

set it on fire. Before the affair ended they had killed the mother and other 
members of the family, in all eight at this time, and one, a child of ten, died the 
next day from wounds. One of the assaulting party, Joseph Vivier, was killed, 
and one wounded. 

OTHER LAWLESS ACTS 

A good-looking young fellow at Fort Union, Augustin Bourbonnais, made 
advances to the Indian wife of Kenneth McKenzie, who directed John Brasseau, 
the undertaker — ready to undertake any job, ranging from the burial of the dead 
to furnishing the victim — to shoot him. 

Bourbonnais, having been forced out of the fojt, was lying in wait outside, 
threatening to shoot McKenzie at sight; instead, he, himself, was shot by Bras- 
seau, but not fata-lly, though laid up nearly a year from his wound. 

Christmas, 1838, the hunter at Fort Union was killed and thrown into the fire 
by two of his co-employees, who were tried by the drum-head court-martial 
which regulated the affairs of the fort, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged. 
The court, however, being in doubt as to its authority to carry out the sentence, 
it was commuted to thirty-nine lashes, and when John Brasseau showed a dispo- 
sition to put too much vigor into the whipping, the Court would say: "Moderate, 
[ohn, moderate." Two men were caught stealing horses belonging to the fort, 
and there was then no moderation. Brasseau brought the blood at every stroke. 

It was freely charged that McKenzie was directly responsible for the attack 
by the Crows upon the outfit of Thomas Fitzpatrick in 1833. They ran off 
150 horses, looted the camp of $20,000 worth of furs, equipments and mer- 
chandise ; some of the furs, plainly marked, being sold to McKenzie, who 
refused to give them up unless paid what they had cost him. 

Narcisse Le Clerc was proceeding up the river to engage in trade on his own 
account. A shot across the bows stopped his boat, and the American Fur Com- 
pany took possession of boat and cargo. Le Clerc sued the company in the 
United States Court at St. Louis, secured judgment against the company, and 
McKenzie's outfit was charged $9,200 for their "unreasonable restraint of 
trade." 

In 1843, W. P. May, a Rocky Mountain trader, came down the Yellowstone 
with his winter catch of furs and proceeded down the Missouri in a boat built 
for the purpose. He was fired on by some of the Fox, Livingston & Co. 
desperadoes and his boat and cargo seized. 

Fort Clark became headquarters for thieves and other criminals of the Upper 
Missouri, who committed depredations upon the Sioux, dressed as Arikaras, 
and upon the latter dressed as Sioux. Nor did they confine their attentions to 
the Indians entirely, but held up and robbed white trappers and others when 
opportunity offered. There has been a story current on the frontier since those 
times that a party of seven miners, proceeding down the river from Montana, 
were waylaid by Indians — or whites garbed as Indians — and robbed of $30,000 at 
a point a short distance below Fort Clark, and that the trader at Fort Clark got 
the gold in the "course of business." 

On the way down the river from the Upper Missouri, returning from his 
investigation in 1855. Alfred Cummings, United States Sujierintendent of Indian 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 187 

Affairs, stopped at Fort Clark and lost seven mules, stolen from his outfit during 
the few hours he was there. 

These are only samples of the numerous outrages of that period by whites 
on the Upper Missouri. 

OUTR.\GES BY INDI.\NS 

In view of the outrages by whites against each other there is little room to 
criticize the perpetration of Indian outrages against the whites. Up to 1833 the 
whites at Fort Union hunted at will throughout that region, but later there was 
scarcely a boat or mackinaw, passing down the river, that was not fired on by the 
Indians. They would attack the men at the wood yards and in the hay fields and 
timber camps. Stock was run off within 200 yards of Fort Union, and the 
tribes were constantly at war with each other. 

THE WILD BONAP.\RTE OF THE PR.\IRIES 

Among the Assiniboines was a chief of renown named Tahatka, or Gauche, 
described by Father De Smet as "a crafty, cruel, deceitful man, a bad Indian in 
every sense of the word ; his life was full of horrors." Gauche led his tribe for 
forty years, and was one of the parties, as stated, to the McKenzie treaty of peace 
at Fort Union. He was sometimes called "Neenah-yau-henne," the "man-who- 
holds-the-knife," with which it was said he could cut a rock in two, owing to the 
strong "medicine," or supernatural powers, with which he was believed to be 
endowed. By the whites he was sometimes called the "Wild Bonaparte of the 
Prairies." He had no difficulty in raising a large band of warri,ors whenever 
he elected to go on the war path against other tribes. 

It is related that he raised a large party to attack the Blackfeet, on the occa- 
sion of their return from one of their annual trips to the fort for the purpose 
of trade. An examination of their trail revealed to him that they were rich in 
horses, and well supplied with intoxicating liquor, and he reasoned that the 
following night would be given over to carousal, so he selected as the psychologi- 
cal moment for attack the hour of stupor, early in the morning after their 
debauch. His deductions turned out to be correct, and finding them utterly 
unable to defend themselves he captured 300 horses, killed and scalped a large 
number of men. women and children, and followed up the victory by tlie usual 
celebration. 

One member of his party had remained at Fort Union, and the Blackfeet, 
hearing of his presence at the fort, sent word to him that they were hunting for 
the Assiniboines for the purpose of making peace with them and invited him 
to accompany them, but he was reluctant to go. Finally they sent a horse, fully 
equipped, which was to be his if he would go with them. This his cupidity led 
him to accept, and in the act of mounting he was riddled with bullets within 
200 yards of Fort Union. 

• 

BEAR RIB SUFFERS THE PENALTY 

As time passed the Indians on the Upper Missouri became more and ■.nore 
troublesome, and more determined to drive the whites from the country, refusing 



188 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

their annuities and regarding as traitors those who accepted presents, lest it 
might in some manner involve the loss of their homes. United States officers 
who came to them bearing gifts were no longer looked upon with favor. Bear 
Rib was prevailed upon to receipt for the goods for his tribe, and October 8, 1862, 
Governor William Jayne reported his death. The Indian penalty for treason is 
death. Bear Rib knew this, of course, but his cupidity was stronger than his 
loyalty to the traditions of his tribe, and he paid the forfeit with his life. Civil 
government had been inaugurated in Dakota ; its settlement under the free home- 
stead law of May 20th of that year having commenced, and the Indian outbreak, 
fully described in another chapter, was in progress, but preceding that story 
is much of interest yet to be told. 

Dr. Washington Mathews, who served some years as medical officer at Fort 
Berthold and at Fort Stevenson, wrote, in a personal letter to Dr. Elliott Coues, 
editor of Charles Larpenteur's Journal, as follows : 

"The Hidatsa moved up the Missouri from their old villages on Knife River 
to the bluffs on which Fort Berthold was afterwards built in 1845. The Mandans 
followed soon after, and the Arikaras joined them in 1862. 

"Soon after the Hidatsa moved up, in 1845, the American Fur Company 
began, with the assistance of the Indians, to build a stockaded post which they 
called Fort 'Berthold,' in honor of a certain person of that name (Bartholomew 
Berthold) of St. Louis. This was built on the extreme southern edge of the 
bluff, on land which has since been mostly, if not entirely, cut away by the river. 

"In 1859, ^" opposition trading company erected, close to the Indian village 
(but east of it and farther away from the river than Fort Berthold), some build- 
ings, protected by a stockade and bastions, which they named Fort .Atkinson (the 
second of that name). 

"This was the fort at which Boiler (author of 'Among the Indians') had 
his trading post. In 1862 opposition ceased and the American Fur Company 
obtained possession of Fort Atkinson, which they occupied, transferring to it the 
name of Fort Berthold. They abandoned the old stockade, which was afterward 
(December 24, 1862) almost entirely destroyed by a war party of Sioux. 

"This was a memorable Christmas eve in the annals of Fort Berthold. The 
Siou.x came very near capturing the post, but the little citizen garrison defended it 
bravely, and at length the Sioux withdrew. * * * f\iQ f^j-st (I think) mili- 
tary occupancy of the fort was in 1864, when Gen. Alfred Sully assigned a com- 
pany of Iowa cavalry to duty there under command of Capt. A. B. Moreland. 

"In the spring of 1865 this company was relieved by one of the First United 
States Volunteer Infantry (ex-Con federate prisoners) under command of Capt. 
R. R. Dimon. In the same year Captain Dimon's company was relieved by one 
of the Fourth United States \'olunteer Infantry, commanded by Capt. Adams 
Bassett. In 1862 Fort Berthold received the traders from Fort Clark, leaving 
that fort in the possession of the Arikaras. 

"In the spring of 1866 regular troops came into the country, and a company 
of the Thirteenth Infantry, commanded by Capt. Nathan A\'ard Osborn (colonel 
Fifteenth Infantry, August 5, 1888, now deceased), succeeded the volunteers. 

"When the troops first moved in the traders were obliged to move out and 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 189 

built quarters for themselves outside. After the troops were withdrawn the 
traders returned for a short time and then made way for the Indian agency." 

The United States troops were withdrawn from Fort Berthold when the con- 
struction of Fort Stevenson was begun in 1867. Fort Stevenson was abandoned 
in 1883, and the reservation was sold at private sale to a syndicate from Cincin- 
nati represented by Hon. L. C. Black. 



CHAPTER XIII 
INCLUDING THE SIOUX MASSACRE OF 1862 

PRIMEVAL INGRAFTING OF MAN's INHUMANITY TO MAN INDIAN WARS — 

TREATIES OF 1837 AND 185I TRADERS AND THEIR ACCOUNTS THE SIOUX 

MASSACRE OF 1 862 ORIGIN AND EXTENT OF THE TROUBLE FACTS GLEANED 

FROM OFFICIAL RECORDS SCENES AND INCIDENTS RELATED BY TONGUE AND 

PEN OF PARTICIPANTS IN THE WAR ATROCITIES OF INDIAN WARFARE — COST 

TO INDIANS AND SETTLERS. 

"And I have seen his brow. 
The forehead of my upright one, and just, 
Trod by the hoof of battle to the dust. 

****** 

Ay, my own boy ! thy sire 
Is with the sleepers of the valley cast. 
And the proud glory of my life hath past, 

With his high glance of fire. 
Woe ! that the linden and the vine should bloom 
And a just man be gathered to the tomb ! " 

—Nathaniel P. Willis, The Soldier's Widow. 

In 1520, the .Spanish carried away large numbers of the inhabitants from 
the islands of the West Indies and the Carolinas, and sold them for slaves; com- 
mitting outrages, outranking in studied and fiendish cruelty anything ever charged 
to American Indians. 

De Soto came with bloodhounds to run down, and handcuffs, shackles and 
chains to bind. American Indians it was his purpose to enslave. It is not too 
much to say that Christian monarchs encouraged exploration in the search of 
new worlds, and to exploit and to hold as vassals or slaves the conquered people. 
From Africa, 40,000,000 people were stolen, kidnapped or purchased from 
warring tribes, before the slave trade was abolished and the tide of public 
sentiment turned in humanity's favor. 

In the Carolinas, Indians made captive in their raids upon the setlements, or 
in the punitive expeditions sent against them becatise of such raids, were enslaved 
under authority of laws enacted for the protection of the settlements, until the 
Indian and negro slaves outnumbered the inhabitants and became a menace. 

The first outbreak in \'irginia and the first encounter in New England were 
based on the terror and dread of the white men from previous outrages com- 
mitted in Florida and on the Labrador Coast. 

In the Virginia uprising, ]\Iarch 22. 1622, the Indians partook of food in 
the morning from the tables of colonists whom they intended to slaughter at 
noon, and in the first surprise 347 colonists were killed, and in the warfare which 

190 




LITTLE CROW 

Leader of the Indian revolt and war of 
1S62 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 191 

followed the eighty plantations in \'irginia were reduced to eight, Jamestown 
and two others escaping through warning given by a Christian Indian, and the 
4,000 settlers were reduced to 2,000, while the Indian tribes engaged were nearly 
destroyed. The colonists were restrained by law from making peace on any 
terms, and each year sent three expeditions against them to prevent them from 
planting crops in the spring, or harvesting should any be raised, and to destroy 
iheir homes should any be rebuilt. In 1636 a peace was arranged, but not of long 
duration. 

April 18, 1644, Opechancanough, brother and successor of Powhatan, respon- 
sible for the massacre of 1622, again attacked the \'irginia colonists, killing 300 
in a few hours, when, realizing their own helpless condition, they fled. Opechan- 
canough, made captive, was treacherously shot by his guard, whose family had 
suffered in the uprising, and dying of his wounds the Powhatan confederacy was 
ended, and now no tongue speaks the dialect of the tribe of Powhatan. 

Then came the war of extermination by the Pequots, a powerful tribe of 
4,000 warriors in the Connecticut \ alley, in 1637, and then the King Philip's 
War of the Plymouth Colony, inaugurated July 20, 1675, and the Swamp fight 
of the following autumn, all of which are treated in detail in other parts of this 
volume. In 1621 the servants of a Dutch director murdered a Raritan war- 
rior on the west shore of the Hudson near Staten Island. August 28, 1641, 
a nephew of the murdered warrior of the Raritans, to avenge the death of his 
uncle twenty years before, killed an old man of the Dutch Colony. In January, 
1642, steps were taken toward punishing the Raritans for the later murder. The 
first demand for the offender was refused, the Indians holding that he did no 
wrong in avenging the death of his uncle, but they finally agreed to the surrender. 
While these negotiations were pending, a Hackensack Indian was made drunk 
and was beaten and robbed, and to avenge his wrongs killed two of the Dutch 
Colony. 

The Hackensacks had been attacked by the Mohawks and fled to the Dutch 
Colony for protection. Pity was shown them and they were supplied with food 
and finally scattered, some going to the Raritans. Some of the Dutch decided 
that then was the time to avenge the three murders and other alleged outrages, 
and attacked them March i, 1642, under the leadership of an "ex- West India 
convict," killing eighty men, women and children. Babes were snatched from" 
the care of mothers and thrown into the river, and when the mothers jumped 
into the stream to rescue them they were prevented from landing. 

Eleven petty tribes joined the outraged tribes, followed later by eight other 
tribes, and a long and disastrous war resulted. The homes of the colonists were 
burned, their animals slaughtered, the men killed and the women and children 
made captive ; in this displaying a larger degree of humanity than the Dutch 
aggressors, who had found profit in selling them fire-arms and teaching their 
use. The attack was made after the tribe had offered to surrender the murderer 
and pay a suitable indemnity. 

In the massacre at Fort William Henry in July, 1757, the English defenders 
had surrendered after a six days' siege, and were marching out unarmed, — 
accompanied by refugees returning to the British lines or their homes under the 
terms of their surrender, — assured of full protection, when about a mile from 
the fort the Indian allies, promised opportunity for plunder as the price of 



192 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

co-operation, fell upon them and slaughtered several hundred men, women and 
children before the French were able to restrain them. 

The Wyoming massacre, near Wilkesbarre, Pa., occurred July 3, 1778. The 
attack upon Fort Forty where about 400 old men, women, and children had 
gathered, mainly for refuge, was made by 400 British and Tories and 700 
Indians. About 200 of the defenders were killed, — massacred principally by the 
Indians under every circumstance usually accompanying Indian warfare. Queen 
Esther, a half-blood, to avenge the death of her son, tomahawked fourteen 
wounded. On the 5th the fort surrendered, when the Indians, throwing off all 
restraint, swept through the Wyoming Valley, burning, torturing and killing. 
The total number killed is conservatively placed at three hundred. 

The Sioux allies in Colonel Leavenworth's expedition against the Arikaras 
(1823) we have seen made the same demand, and they engaged in the opening 
attack with great zeal, but when it became apparent that they would not be 
permitted to destroy and kill a conquered people, "subsequent proceedings inter- 
ested them no more," and they withdrew completely disgusted with the ways of 
"civilized warfare." 

THE SIOUX M.\SS.\CRE OF 1862 

The settlement of Dakota was retarded by the Sioux massacre of 1862. 
W'hile it fell with greatest force on the frontier settlers of Minnesota, it extended 
to Dakota, thirty-two settlers within the limits of North Dakota having been 
killed during the uprising, and many others driven away never to return. Fort 
Abercrombie was besieged and in the campaign which followed several important 
battles were fought on North Dakota soil. The friendly Wahpetons and Sissetons, 
many of whom jeopardized their lives to protect the captives taken by the hostiles, 
camping near them and threatening them with a counter war if harm came to 
them, were granted reservations in Dakota, and their descendants have become 
worthy citizens of the state, engaged in various lines of business. 

The facts have been gathered for this work from many sources ; from the 
report of Thomas J- Galbraith, then agent of the Sioux ; from the story of the 
escape of the missionaries by Rev. Stephen R. Riggs, thirty-five of his colony 
having been conducted to safety by friendly Indians ; from the Reminiscences 
of Samuel J. Brown, who with his mother and other members of his family 
were captives in the hands of the Sioux from the beginning until the close of 
the uprising; from "Recollections of the Sioux Massacre of 1862," by Oscar 
Garrett Wall, who was one of the defenders of Fort Ridgeley and a participant 
in the campaign which followed and in the battles fought on North Dakota 
soil ; from officers and soldiers who participated in the campaign ; from citizens 
who suiifered in body, mind and estate, and from an , examination of official 
records. 

THE TREATY OF 1837 AT WASHINGTON 

Under the treaty of 1837, the Sioux ceded all of their lands east of the 
Mississippi, and all of their islands in said river, to the L^nited States. They 
were to receive $300,000 to be invested for their benefit at 5 per cent interest; 
$110,000 to pay to the relatives and friends of the Sioux having not less than 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 193 

one-fourth blood ; $90,000 for the payment of the just debts of the Sioux Indians 
interested in the lands ; an annuity of $10,000 in goods to be distributed among 
them; and to continue for twenty years; $8,250 annually for twenty years for 
the purchase of medicines, agricultural implements and stock, and for the 
support of a physician, farmer and blacksmith; $10,000 for tools, cattle and 
other useful articles to be purchased as soon as practicable; $5,500 annually 
for twenty years for provisions, and $6,000 in goods to be delivered to the 
chiefs and braves signing the treaty upon their return to St. Louis. 

Fifteen annual payments had been made under this treaty when the treaty of 
185 1 was signed. 

THE TREATY OF 185I AT TRAVERSE DES SIOUX 

Under the treaty of 185 1, the Sioux ceded all lands owned by them in Iowa 
and Minnesota, for which they were to receive $3,303,000, of which $2,748,000 
was to be permanently invested for their benefit, the Government paying thereon 
5 per cent interest for a period of fifty years. The interest was to be applied 
annually, under the direction of the President of the United States, for agricultural 
improvement and civilization, for educational purposes, for the purchase of 
goods and provisions, known as their annuities, and for an annuity in money 
amounting to $71,000. 

The appropriation for the fulfillment of the treaty of 185 1, covered these 
several amounts and the sum of $495,000 to enable them to settle their affairs 
and pay their just debts, and the expense of their removal to other lands, and for 
their subsistence for one year after reaching their new home. The appropriation 
also provided for the sixteenth payment under the treaty of 1837. 

THE CLAIMS OF THE TRADERS 

It was the custom of the traders to make advances to the Indians in the way 
of arms and ammunition for their hunting expeditions, for blankets and clothing 
and other necessary articles, to be paid for on their return from the hunt. The 
Indians had been thus accommodated not only by the licensed traders, but by 
those trading with them without authority, and there were large sums claimed 
to be due from the Indians, including balances running back to the treaty of 
1837. Some were due from deceased Indians, and other sums from dishonest 
ones, who had defrauded the traders or attempted to do so. A portion was 
for supplies furnished them as a tribe, for cattle, etc. 

The traders who received the benefits of the Traverse des Sioux treaty were 

Bailey & Dousman $ 15,000 

N. W. Kittson 2,850 

Gabrielle Renville 621 

S. R. Riggs for American Board 800 

P. Prescott 1,334 

Franklin Steele 3.250 

Henry H. Sibley 66,459 

Joseph R. Brown 6,564 

Vol. I 13 



194 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Joseph Provincelle 10,066 

Joseph Renville, Sr., Estate 17.540 

J. B. Faribault 22,500 

Alexander Faribault 13.500 

Joseph Laf rambois 1 1.300 

R. Fresnier 2,300 

Martin McLeod 19.046 

Lewis Roberts 7,490 

William Hartshorne 530 

Francis Labatte 500 

J. H. Lock-wood 500 

Henry Jackson 35o 

Hazen Mores i ,000 

R. McKenzie 5.500 

W. H. Forbes i.ooo 

Total $210,000 

The aggregate amount of these claims, as originally presented was $43i'73578- 
The money was paid to Hugh Tyler, as attorney for these parties, for settlement 
in full, as above. 

The claims against the Wa-pa-koo-ta band were as follows : 

Alexander Faribault $ 42,000 

Henry H. Sibley 31.500 

Duncan Campbell 500 

James Wells i.ooo 

Augustine Root i .000 

Alexis Bailey 9.ooo 

H. L. Dousman 4^ooo 

Philander Prescott i ,000 

Total .^90,000 

The money was paid for these parties to General H. H. Sibley. 
The claims against the Med-a-wa-kan-toan band, as filed under oath with 
Governor Ramsey, were as follows : 

H. H. Sibley $ 37,722.07 

McBoal & Odell 639.93 

Alexis Bailey 20,108.00 

James Wells 1 5,000.00 

Frs. Labatte 5,000.00 

Philander Prescott 1,182.10 

Alexis Faribault 9.000.00 

J. B. Faribault 1 3,000.00 

Joseph Buisson 2,000.00 

Franklin Steele 7,000.00 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 195 

Henry G. Bailey 483.00 

Estate of O. Faribault 2,000.00 

Joseph J. Frazer 5,000.00 

Augustine Rock 5,000.00 

Joseph Renville estate 2,000.00 

W. G. & G. W. Ewing 3,750.00 



$128,885.10 



These claims were settled in full acquittance for the sum of $70,000. paid 
Hugh Tyler as attorney for the parties named. 

The claims presented by H. H. Sibley were for and on behalf of the American 
P"ur Company. There was also paid to the half blood Indians $65,000. 

Congress provided that no portion of the money appropriated should be paid 
to attorneys, and yet there was paid to Hugh Tyler the sum of $55,250 for 
"discount and percentage." Ostensibly the payment was made by the half-bloods 
and traders from the sums awarded them, but there was a feeling among the 
Indians that this money had been wrongfully taken from them. Tyler came 
among them as a special agent of the Interior Department, and disbursing agent 
accompanying the commission which made the treaty, paying the expenses of 
entertaining the Indians on the occasion, giving him the acquaintance necessary to 
enable him to make his claim for the share on account of alleged services 
rendered. 

The Indians were not satisfied with the settlements made under this treaty; 
they could not understand why the tribe should pay individual debts or losses 
incurred in dealing with deceased or dishonest Indians. They generally denied 
that the tribe owed anything, and insisted that if there was money due from them 
they should be permitted to settle their own debts, and that they should be paid 
the money their due under the treaty. They felt that they had been deprived 
of their land, and were being defrauded of the money they were to receive for it. 

The Indian acknowledgment of full payment for the fulfillment of the treatv, 
so far as it related to these large sums, was signed by twelve chiefs and head 
men of the tribe, some of whom the Indians were not satisfied to regard as 
such, while those who had opposed the settlement of course did not sign. The 
payment was witnessed by Thomas Foster, John C. Kelton, U. S. A., Charles D. 
Fillmore and W. H. Forbes. It was made by Governor Alexander Ramsey, of 
Minnesota, ex-ofificio Superintendent of Indian Affairs in that territory. The 
U. S. Senate after full investigation by a committee, appointed under its authority, 
accepted Governor Ramsey's accounts and authorized their settlement. The 
evidence on which the Senate acted, may be found in Senate document No. 6. 
first session 33d Congress, and Senate document No. 131, same session. 

THE TRE.\Ty P.WMENT FOR 1862 

It has been charged that the treaty payment for 1862. which was the imme- 
diate cause of the outbreak, had been delayed through the manipulation of 
dishonest agents in collusion with others : that an attempt had been made to 
force the Indians to accept currency, then sadly depreciated, and that a delay 



196 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

followed while the currency was being reconverted into gold. But this was 
not true. 

The annual appropriation for 1862 was $150,000. While it should have been 
available July ist, it was not made until July 5th, and then a question arose as to 
whether it should be paid in coin or currency. Upon full examination it was 
decided by Salmon P. Chase, U. S. Secretary of the Treasury, that it must be 
paid in coin. It was in the nature of interest on the public debt, and it was the 
policy of the Government to so pay the interest in order to protect its credit; 
the life of the nation depended upon it. The soldiers were being paid in a 
depreciated currency, those who furnished supplies and munitions of war were 
so paid, but the debt to the Indians it was held must be paid in coin. The 
requisition of the Indian Office for the money was made July 25th, and in due 
time the money was sent from the U. S. Mint, and reached Fort Ridgeley on the 
evening of the outbreak. The amount so sent was $71,000, that being the amount 
alloted for annuities. There were also annuity goods in the warehouse on the 
reservation, which it was the intention to distribute at the time of the payment 
of the money annuities. 

UNEASINESS PRECEDING THE OUTBREAK 

The Civil War was in its second year. President Lincoln had called for 
300,000 more volunteers, and among the settlers on the frontier who had enlisted, 
were the Renville Rangers from the immediate vicinity of the Indian agencies. 
The war spirit was at work, animating the red men as well as the whites. It was 
rumored among the Indians that the negroes had taken Washington and that 
all of the white men had gone to war, leaving only old men, women and children, 
and that the Government was using their money for the war, and to take care 
of the negroes. War was an ever present topic of conversation and troubled 
them in their dreams. Little Crow stated that whenever he looked to the south- 
ward he could see the smoke of battle, and hear the war-whoop of the white 
soldiers. Nevertheless, the Indians came to receive their annuities in gala attire. 
They engaged in horse-racing and in other sports, happy as Indians can be when 
there is no immediate cause of complaint. 

By July 1st, the Indians had arrived in large numbers, at the Redwood 
Agency. They had come from their himting grounds and from their homes, and 
were prepared to stay for a few days only. July 2d, a detail of 100 soldiers 
under the command of Lieut. Timothy J. Sheehan of the Fifth Minnesota 
Volunteer Infantry, came to guard against possible trouble during the payment. 
July 14th, there were 779 lodges of Indians, in camp about the agency, suf- 
fering from lack of food. July i8th, they reported that their condition was 
unendurable, and July 21st, the agent arranged to count the Indians preparatory 
to issuing annuity goods. They were not counted however, until July 26th, and 
until August 4th, no effort had been made to relieve their necessities. That morn- 
ing the Indians warned Lieutenant Sheehan that they were coming to make a 
demonstration ; that they were coming armed, but intended no harm. A few 
moments later several hundred warriors surrounded the camp, yelling like a 
thousand demons and firing their guns wildly. Though ready for war, they 
came for food. The warehouse was broken open and the distribution of food 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 197 

commenced, but, with artillery trained on them, the soldiers cleared them from the 
warehouse. Then the agent consented to act and issued food, but wholly inade- 
quate in quantity. 

INDIAN COUNCIL DECIDES FOR WAR 

The Indians withdrew in ugly mood and held a council, at which it was 
decided to commence war at once, but Standing Buffalo, a chief of the Sissetons, 
and a few others, protested, and it was finally agreed to wait a little while. On 
the 6th of August, another council convened, and an agreement was reached to 
return to their homes and hunting grounds and await the call of the agent, who 
consented to issue the annuity goods then in the warehouse. The issue was 
commenced that day, and all the Indians having disappeared on the evening of 
the 7th, the soldiers on August nth, returned to their station. 

But the Indian hearts were bad. As they roamed over the country in small 
parties, the events of the past few weeks were under almost constant discussion, 
and the voice of the majority of every party was for war. But the council had 
decided to wait and they waited. Standing Buffalo had warned the whites of 
their first decision for war, though to do so endangered his life, and at the 
same time told his white friends that he had been a member of that council, 
and was bound by its action, as all were who had participated. 

BEGINNING OF THE OUTBREAK 

On Sunday August 17, 1862, a band of twenty Indians were hunting near 
Acton, Meeker County, Minnesota. One of the party robbed a hen's nest of 
the eggs on which she was sitting. The chief protested and a bitter quarrel 
ensued, and the chief and four of the party v^jithdrew among accusations of 
cowardice, and threats that there should be war regardless of the action of the 
council. Later during the day the party of five heard shooting and feared that 
the war had commenced and they would be forever disgraced because of their 
opposition to it. In this frame of mind they called at the home of Robinson 
Jones, who accused one of them of having borrowed a gun which he had not 
returned. After leaving the Jones place they went to the home of Howard 
Baker, near by, and asked for water; Jones following them, accompanied by 
his wife, and the quarrel was renewed. To Mrs. Baker's inquiry if he had 
given them liquor, Mr. Jones replied that he had not, that he had "no liquor for 
such red devils." 

The Indians challenged the white men to shoot at the mark. Jones, again 
using ofTensive language, said he was not afraid to shoot with them. After the 
shooting the whites did not load their guns, but the Indians reloaded, and, without 
warning, fired on the whites, killing Mr. Baker, and a Mr. Webster and Mrs. Jones. 
Jones, who was wounded, attempted to escape, but was felled by another shot. 
Mrs. Webster was in a covered wagon and was not molested. Mrs. Baker, with 
a child, fled to the cellar, and the Indians made no search for her, but they returned 
to the home of Mr. Jones and killed Clara B. Wilson. They took some horses 
from another neighbor and hastened to their camp, which was reached late in 
the evening. 



198 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Reporting what they had done, a council was called, and being confident that 
the whites would demand the surrender of the murderers, immediate war was 
agreed upon. They hastened to the home of Little Crow, who lived in a brick 
house built for him by the Government. They filled his house, flocked in his 
garden and door yard, and with one voice demanded that he lead them. He 
consented, and without waiting for his breakfast, led the way to the Redwood 
j\gency, which they had decided to attack that morning. Runners were sent to 
other tribes to warn them that war had commenced and to ask their co-operation. 
As they proceeded on the way to the Agency, the woods and hills reverberated 
with their whoops and yells, and as their war cry went echoing down the valley, 
the warriors were aroused from their slumbers and hastened to join their ranks, 
which increased rapidly in numbers. 

At 7 o'clock Monday morning, August i8th, armed, but scantily clad, they 
squatted on the steps of the several Agency buildings, and the homes of the em- 
ployees. At a signal the awful work began, and in a few moments every white 
person at the Agency was killed, excepting two or three of the wounded who 
escaped in the confusion. Plunder, rapine, and outrage of every kind were inci- 
dents of the massacre. Young warriors who had never shed human blood, found 
new pleasure in torturing, maltreating and murdering defenseless women and 
children, and boys spent the forenoon shooting into the bodies of the dead and 
otherwise mutilating them. 

The first report of the trouble having reached Fort Ridgeley at lo A. M., 
Capt. John S. Marsh, with forty-six men, hastened to the relief of the Agency, 
leaving but few effective men at the fort. As they hurried on they passed the 
smoking ruins of farm houses and the bodies of several murdered settlers. 

THE BATTLE AT THE FERRY 

.A.t the ferry in front of the Redwood Agency they found the boat ready for 
them to cross in charge of White Dog, who had been regarded one of the most 
trusty of the friendly Indians. He urged them to cross and meet the Indians 
in council, and see if the trouble could not be arranged. The decapitated form 
of the old ferryman was lying where he fell. The soldiers discovered signs 
of an ambush and at their first show of uneasiness White Dog gave the signal, 
and the Indians springing from the tall grass fired, and twenty-six of the soldiers 
fell at the first volley. The Indians rushed upon the survivors and tried to 
engage them in a hand to hand conflict, but they gained the timber. In an eflfort 
to cross the stream. Captain Marsh was drowned, when the survivors made their 
way back to Fort Ridgeley. Of the wounded two escaped, after suffering almost 
incredible hardships. Lying concealed in the high grass, they could hear the 
pleading and groaning of their wounded comrades, and realize their suffering, 
and when all was still they knew that death had come to their relief. 

AFTER THE REDWOOD AGENCY MASSACRE 

The night after the massacre of the defenseless and unsuspecting people at 
Redwood Agency, and the slaughter of Captain Marsh's men, was spent by the 
Indians in dancing. There was excitement everywhere. Those eager to tell 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 199 

wliat they had done, sat impatiently waiting their opportunity to tell their story. 
Amid tlie pounding of the tom-tom, the singing of war songs, and occasional 
whoops and yells, — as a particularly striking tale was related, — the wild flourishing 
of clubs, knives, and tomahawks, the dance went on. The hideous Cutnose, who 
was one of the thirty-eight executed at Mankato, boasted of having gone to a 
white man who was cutting hay, assisted by three men and his wife, and pre- 
tending to be very friendly, offered his hand, and as the man reached out to 
receive it, he stabbed him. They grappled, and the knife, which had. remained 
in the flesh, was crowded farther in, and the man fell dead at his feet. At the 
conclusion of his recital the tom-tom started up its beating, and the fiend was 
greeted with whoops and yells for a prolonged period. And so the dance went 
on. only interrupted by atrocious recitals of this character and worse. 

But for the anticipated pleasure of telling such tales, and of hearing the stories 
of others, the young men would have followed Little Crow's advice and attacked 
Fort Ridgeley on the first day of the outbreak. The thought that there was 
more real pleasure in murdering defenseless women and children than in fighting 
armed men. led them to put oft' the assault on Fort Ridgeley until after the attack 
on New Ulm. Besides, on the first day they could reach and murder in their 
homes the unarmed settlers before they heard of the uprising. 

.\h-kee-p.\h's rebuke 

.\h-kee-pah, who refused to join in the dance, was accused of being a coward 
and taunted with not having "killed one white man, no, not even a babe," and 
jumping to the heart of the circle of men who were acctising him, and by his 
earnestness commanding their attention, declared that there was "no bravery in 
killing helpless men and women and little children, and only cowards would 
boast of it." He took advantage of the opportunity to tell them what he and 
his tribe would do to them if they harmed one of his relatives, some of whom 
were among the captive mixed-bloods. 

CONDITIONS AT FORT RIDGELEY 

Fort Ridgeley was the only reliance of the settlers. They hurried to it from 
all directions in the hope of gaining protection. On the evening of August 
1 8th there were congregated there 300 refugees, terror-stricken, crouching, 
cringing, crying, praying, some nearly crazed. There were less than thirty 
soldiers to protect them against the many hundred warriors likely to attack the 
fort at any moment. On the 19th the Indians in large force appeared before the 
fort, in such close proximity that some could be recognized by the use of a 
glass, and held a council. It was seen that there was dissension among them, 
and they retired, deferring attack until the next day. That evening reinforce- 
ments arrived. The force defending the fort then consisted of Company B, Fifth 
Minnesota Regiment Infantry, two officers and fifty-seven men. Company C 
of the same regiment, one officer and fifty men; the Renville Rangers, one 
officer and fifty-one men; twenty-five effective men organized from among the 
refugees, and an ordnance sergeant of the United States Army in command of a 
detail for the howitzers. There was also Dr. Alfred Muller, the post surgeon, the 



200 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

post sutler, and Justus Ramsey and Cyrus G. Wykoff, who had arrived Monday 
evening, the iSth, with $71,000 in gold for the purpose of making the Indian 
payment. Lieutenant Timothy J. Sheehan was in command. 

THE ATTACK UPON NEW ULM 

On August 19 an attack was made by a large force of Indians on New Ulm, 
a town of about 1,500 inhabitants, whose defense was conducted by Judge Charles 
E. Flandrau, in command of about three hundred hurriedly organized volunteers, 
imperfectly armed. They fell back at the first assault by the Indians, who 
gained the outskirts of the town, but were repulsed and the buildings in the 
vicinity burned to prevent the Indians from using them for shelter. But 
advancing under cover of the smoke, which a shifting wind blew up Main street, 
they gained the very center of the town, to be again driven out. At night they 
retired. 

After the first day's battle about forty buildings were burned in order to 
prevent their use by the Indians for shelter ; intrenchments were dug, and every 
possible means used for strengthening the defense against the attack which was 
renewed the next moniing, the Indians withdrawing about noon. The town, 
however, was abandoned, and the wounded and the women and children were 
sent to Mankato in a train of one hundred and fifty-three wagons, guarded by 
citizens and soldiers. 

THE ATTACK ON FORT RIDGELEY 

The attack on Fort Ridgeley was commenced August 20th at i P. i\L The 
Indians charging furiously, whooping and yelling, were met by a deadly fire of 
shrapnel and musketry at close range which quickly drove them from one of 
the buildings, of which they had gained possession. The attack continued till 
night, when they withdrew. During the battle that day the ammunition, which 
was in an exposed condition, was safely removed to one of the stone barracks, 
and at night the fort was strengthened by intrenchments. The men were cheered 
by the results of the first day's battle. There was no fighting the next day, but 
on the 22nd the attack was renewed, and from every direction the Indians were 
seen creeping toward the fort, their heads turbaned with grass or wreathed in 
wild flowers, the better to hide their movements. At a given signal they again 
made a rush upon the fort, capturing the sutler's store and one of the wooden 
barracks. One of the buildings was fired by a cannon shot from the fort and 
the other by the Indians who tried to reach the fort under cover of the smoke. 
Clouds of arrows, with btirning punk attached to the tips, were fired upon the 
buildings in an effort to burn them, but the heavy rain of the night before pre- 
vented that result. 

During the progress of the battle the Renville Rangers, several of whom 
spoke the Sioux language, hearing Little Crow give the order to make a rush 
and club muskets, shouted back to them, "Come on ! We are ready for you. 
They met the charge with a withering musketry fire, sustained by the artillery 
loaded with canister, and the Indians were again repulsed. Into a camp shelter- 
ing the Indian women and children, ponies and dogs, which had been pitched in 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 201 

a deep ravine some distance from the fort, twenty-four-pound shells were dropped, 
and bursting, made sad havoc among them. 

The din of battle was terrific. There was the rattle of musketry, the roar of 
cannon, the shriek of shell and the explosion, accompanied by the yells of the 
charging Indians and the shouts of the officers and men. In the midst of the 
battle it was found that the ammunition for the muskets was short, and with 
that exhausted there would be no hope. Powder was obtained by opening the 
ammunition of the artillery. Iron rods were cut into slugs to take the place 
of bullets, and the women took up the work of making cartridges. At night the 
Indians again retired, defeated, but the siege continued five days longer. It was 
raised on the 27th by the arrival of William R. Marshall and Colonel Samuel 
AlcPhail with one hundred and seventy-five mounted citizen soldiers, and the 
next day General Henry H. Sibley reached Fort Ridgeley with twelve hundred 



ATT.ACK UPON FORT ABERCROMBIE 

August 19th, Air. Russell and three employes engaged in building a hotel at 
Breckenridge, Minn., were killed. Charles Snell, the mail driver, was also 
killed about the same time. Mrs. Scott who lived at Ottertail crossing, was 
shot in the breast, and her son killed. She literally crawled sixteen miles on 
her hands and knees to Breckenridge, which had been abandoned, and took refuge 
in the saw mill, where she was found and while being conveyed to Fort Aber- 
crombie, Dakota, where the citizens had taken refuge, the team was captured 
by the Indians and the driver was killed. The settlers, however, recaptured the 
team and she was sent to the fort without further injury. 

Fort Abercrombie, consisting of three buildings, the barracks, officers' quar- 
ters, and commissary, was garrisoned by Company D, Fifth Minnesota Regiment 
Infantry, commanded by Capt. John H. Vander Horck. The settlers were 
organized by Capt. T. D. Munn, and about seventy teamsters who had taken 
refuge at the fort were commanded by Captain Smith. The teamsters were 
en route from St. Paul to Red Lake with annuity goods for the Indians, and 
barrels of pork, corned beef, sugar and other provisions were used for a barricade. 
Three hundred head of stock which were corralled near the fort were a constant 
temptation to the Indians, who set fire to the straw stables. Walter S. Hill, 
volunteered to go to St. Paul for re-enforcements ; escorted by thirty-two men 
he passed safely through the Indian lines, but on the return of the escort Edward 
Wright and Mr. Schultz of the party were killed. In a later sortie Mr. Lull 
met his death. 

The attack was made on Fort Abercrombie at 5 A. M. on the 3rd of Sep- 
tember. Captain John H. Vander Horck, when visiting the picket line that 
morning, having been mistaken for an Indian by one of the guards, was painfully 
wounded. Lieutenant Groetch was therefore in command during the attack, 
which was carried on with desperation until about noon, when the Indians retired. 
At the close of this engagement it was found that there were but 350 rounds 
of ammunition left for the muskets, but there being an abundance of ammuni- 
tion for the artillery, cartridges were manufactured from that and an ample 
supply provided for the next attack, w'hich occurred September 6, at day- 



202 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

break. The fighting was hot and furious, but the Indians were again repulsed 
with heavy loss. During the two engagements Company D lost five men, one 
killed and four wounded, and there were several among the citizens and teamsters 
who met with casualties. The Indians hovered about the fort until September 23d, 
when the siege was raised by the arrival of re-enforcements. 

THE B.^TTLE OF BIRCH COULEE 

August 31st, a burial party was sent from Fort Ridgeley to bury the dead at 
Redwood Agency and such other bodies as might be found. The condition of 
the dead, exposed to the summer sun for ten days, was horrible. After burying a 
large number, they camped at Birch Coulee on the night of September ist, in an 
extremely unfavorable position, and were surprised by the Indians at daybreak, 
September 2d, the battle lasting all day and until late in the evening. The com- 
mand numbered 150 men, exclusive of seventeen teamsters, commanded by Maj. 
Joseph R. Brown, whose wife and children were then captives in the hands of 
the Sioux, who had put a price upon his head. The troops were Company A, 
Sixth Minnesota, under Capt. Hiram A. Grant, and the Cullen Guards under Capt. 
Joseph Anderson. There were seventeen wagons parked about the camp, which, 
with the exception of the one which contained a wounded refugee, — Mrs. Justina 
Kreiger, who had reached the camp the previous evening, — were turned over for a 
barricade. Ninety horses connected with the camp were shot within fifteen min- 
utes after the battle commenced, and the wagon in which Mrs. Kreiger lay during 
the battle, was literally shot to pieces, the box and running gear being splintered 
into a thousand fragments. Some of the spokes were shot away, the blanket in 
which she was wrapped contained over two hundred bullet holes, and a dose of 
medicine she was attempting to take was shot from her lips, and yet she had 
but five slight wounds. The story of her sufiferings, of her family murdered, and 
of her own wounds, will be found near the close of this chapter. 

The camp at the beginning of the attack was completely surrounded by several 
hundred Indians, whose whooping and yelling while firing at close range with 
deadly effect, spread consternation in the ranks of the small army of defenders. 
The war cries of the Indians, the beating of their tom-toms, the groans of the 
wounded, the neighing and struggling of the wounded horses, the storm of bullets, 
the smoke of battle, the roar of cannon and the rattle of musketry, and the 
desperate efforts of the soldiers to throw up entrenchments : — using the one spade 
and three shovels, all the tools they had in camp, supplemented, however, by 
swords and bayonets, pocket knives and tin plates, — were memorable incidents of 
the battle. At the close of the engagement 26 soldiers lay dead, and 45 wounded 
were suffering in fearful anguish for want of attention, and especially for water, 
which there had been no means of procuring. The next morning it was found that 
the ammunition was practicall)' exhatisted. and in another hour the whole command 
would have been killed by bullet, bludgeon or tomahawk, but re-enforcements 
were approaching and the Indians fled. 

FIDELITY OF THE FRIENDLY INDIANS 

Notwithstanding the fidelity of the Sissetons and Wahpetons living in the 
vicinity, the buildings of the Yellow Medicine .Agency were burned on the 24th 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 203 

of August. On the evening of August i8th, Chaska, one of the noblest of his race, 
and another Indian, warned the missionaries, Rev. Stephen R. Riggs and Rev. 
Thomas Williamson and associates, — who were devoting their lives to the Indians, 
working for their good, and residing about six miles away, — of their danger, and 
urged them to flee. Other Indians joined in piloting them to a place of safety 
for the night, and through their aid and guides, their party numbering thirty-five, 
reached a point near Fort Ridgeley August 22d, during the progress of the battle 
at that place. Their trail was discovered, but fortunately was obliterated by the 
severe rainstorm of the previous night. During the night after the battle, one 
of the party succeeded in reaching the fort, but was advised that there was little 
hope for it to hold out against another Indian attack, and that provisions were 
becoming low, and it was decided that it was better for the missionaries to try 
to reach the settlements, which they were successful in doing after four days and 
nights of weary traveling, guided all the way by their faithful Indian friends. 
The Renville family, honored in North Dakota as well as in Minnesota, were 
among the helpers of this party to escape. 

The family of the Indian agent and others from the Yellow Medicine Agency, 
sixty-two in all, were guided to a place of safety by Other-Day and other Indian 
friends, reaching Shakopee August 22d, after intense suffering. Ah-kee-pah 
literally camped with Little Crow, and in the vicinity of his captives, originally 
numbering 26, but finally increased to 270, including the family of Maj. J- R- 
Brown, — threatening him and his hostile band with dire vengeance if injury was 
done to them. Even Little Crow endangered his life by yielding to the demands 
of the friendly Indians in behalf of the captives. 

THE B.\TTLE OF WOOD LAKE 

September 23d, the last of the series of battles during the uprising, was fought. 
A large force, consisting of parts of the Third, Sixth and Seventh Minnesota, and 
the Renville Rangers, supported by artillery, gained a decisive victory over the 
Indians, resulting in the surrender of two hundred and seventy captives, on Sep- 
tember 26th, just forty days from the beginning of the outbreak. Here sixteen 
Indians were buried from those killed in the battle, but many of the dead and 
most of the wounded were carried away. 

•SUDDEN CONVERSION OF HOSTILES 

After the battle of Wood Lake the fighting spirit took its departure from the 
greater portion of the Indians in the hostile camp, and as the soldiers advanced, 
every man, woman and child old enough to walk, displayed flags of truce. White 
rags were fastened to the tepee poles, tied to cart and wagon wheels, attached 
to sticks in all conceivable places, and in the most ludicrous manner. One Indian 
having thrown a white blanket over his horse, tied a bit of white cloth to its tail, 
and wrapped an American flag about his body, sat on his war steed, calmly waiting 
for the troops to pass. 

ATROCITIES OF THE SIOUX 

The wounded in the hands of the Sioux were tortured by every conceivable 
device to make death one of prolonged agony. Wives were compelled to witness 



20i EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

the torture of their husbands until death ended their suffering, and were then 
carried away captive. Mothers were compelled to witness the murder of their 
little ones, and to hear their screams and shrieks under the pains of torture pre- 
ceding their death. Helpless infants were left to starve by the side of their 
murdered mothers, or to be consumed in the homes that were burned. Little chil- 
dren wandered for days, terrified and ahungered, before they reached a place of 
safety, and women, wounded, bleeding, and nearly crazed, wandered for weeks, 
before they were found and given care. 

UNSPE.AKABLE OUTRAGES 

Neither tongue nor pen can tell of the sufferings of the refugees, nor faithfully 
report the tales they told, nor picture the terrors encountered by them in their 
flight for safety. At one point they came upon twenty-seven bodies of settlers, 
overtaken in their flight and murdered, and mutilated, some put to outrage 
unspeakable. Two settlers on the way to the Redwood Agency came upon the 
bodies of a woman and two children. They went to the nearest home and to 
the home of several neighbors. The result was the same. There were dead 
bodies at each. At one the father, mother and two children were all murdered. 
They returned hastily to their own settlement and spreading the alarm the settlers 
assembled to determine what to do. 

Starting for Fort Ridgeley, they were met by a band of marauders, the leader 
of which was well known to one of the settlers, who had hunted with him, and 
they were always great friends. The Indian appeared glad to see his friend, 
greeting him cordially and kissing him, claiming that the murders had been 
committed by the Chippewas and promising the protection of the Sioux, prevailed 
upon them to return to their homes. They traveled some distance together, and at 
noon stopping to feed their .cattle and lunch, their Indian escort accepted food 
from them, and, after lunch, motioned them to go on, but soon followed and 
robbed them of their valuables. Another party coming up fired upon them, killing 
all but three of the men of the party at the first volley. 

Mrs. Justina Kreiger, the wounded woman mentioned in connection with the 
battle of Birch Coulee, told her story to the Sioux Commission as follows : 

"Mr. Foss, Mr. Gottleib Zable, and my husband were yet alive. The Indians 
asked the women if they would go along with them, promising to save all that 
would go, and threatening all that refused, with instant death. Some were willing 
to go ; others refused. I told them that I proposed to die with my husband and 
children. My husband urged me to go with them, telling me that they would 
probably kill him and perhaps I could get away in a short time. I still refused, 
preferring to die with him and the children. One of the women who started off 
with the Indians turned around, halloed to me to come up with them, and taking 
a few steps towards me, was shot dead. At the same time two of the men left 
alive and six of the women, were killed, leaving of all the men only my husband 
alive. Some of the children were also killed at the last fire. A number of the 
children yet remained around the wagon ; these the savages beat with the butts of 
their guns until they supposed they were dead. Some, soon after, rose up from 
the ground, with blood streaming down their faces, when they were again beaten 
and killed. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 205 

"I stood yet in the wagon, refusing to get out and go with the murderers; 
my own husband, meanwhile, begging me to go, as he saw they were about to kill 
him. He stood by the wagon, watching an Indian at his right, ready to shoot, 
while another was quite behind him with a gun aimed at him. I saw them both 
shoot at the same time. Both shots took effect in the body of my husband, and 
one of the bullets passed through his body and struck my dress below the knee. 
My husband fell between the oxen and seemed not quite dead, when a third ball 
was shot into his head, and another into his shoulder, which probably entered his 
heart. 

"Now I determined to jump out of the wagon and die beside my husband, but 
as I was standing up to jump, I was shot; seventeen buckshots, as was afterwards 
ascertained, entering my body. I then fell back into the wagon box. I had eight 
children in the wagon-bed and one in a shawl. All of these were either my own 
or else my step-children. What would now become of the children in the wagon 
I did not know, and what the fate of the baby I could only surmise. 

"I was seized by an Indian and very roughly dragged from the wagon, and 
the wagon was drawn over my -body and ankles. I suppose the Indians left me 
for a time, how long I do not know, as I was for a time quite insensible. When 
I was shot the sun was still shining, but when I woke up it was dark. My baby, 
as the children afterwards told me, was, when they found him, lying about five 
yards from me, crying. One of my step-children, a girl of thirteen years of 
age, took the baby and ran off. The Indians took two of the children with them. 
These were the two next to the youngest. One of them, a boy four years old, 
taken first by the Indians, had got out of the wagon, or in some way made his 
escape, and came back to the dead body of his father. He took his father by the 
hand, saying to him, "Papa, papa, don't sleep so long." Two of the Indians came 
back and one of them, getting off his horse, took the child away. The child was 
afterward recovered at Camp Release. The other one I never heard of. Two of 
the boys ran away on the first attack, and reached the woods, some eighty rods 
distant. One climbed a tree; the youngest, age 7, remaining below. This eldest 
boy, 8 years of age, witnessed the massacre of all who were killed at this place. 
He remained in the tree until I was killed, — he supposed. He then came down 
and told his brother what he had seen and that their mother was dead. While 
they were crying over the loss of their parents, August Gest, a son of a neighbor, 
cautioned them to keep still, as the Indians might hear them and come and kill 
them, too." 

Here these children remained in hiding three days, and then spent eight days 
and nights of terror in reaching the fort. Once when they saw a team with a 
family coming toward them, and were about to rush to them in joy, a party of 
Indians concealed from view captured the family and drove off. They could hear 
the screams of the woman until they disappeared in the distance. 

Mrs. Kreiger, recurring to the scene of the massacre of their party, said: 

"My step-daughter, aged 13, as soon as the Indians had left the field, started 
off for the woods. In passing where I lay, supposing me dead, and finding the 
baby near, crying, she hastily took it up, and brought it off the field of death in 
her arms. The other girl, my own child, six years old, arose out of the grass and 
two of the other children that had been beaten over the head and left for dead, 



206 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

now recovered, and went off towards the woods and soon rejoined each other 
there. I was still lying on the field. 

"The three other children returned to the place of the massacre, leaving the 
boy in charge of the 6-year-old girl. As they came to the field they found seven 
children and one woman evincing some signs of life. * * * All these were 
covered with blood, and had been beaten with ihe butts of the guns and hacked by 
the tomahawks, excepting a girl whose head had been severed by a gunshot. The 
woman was Anna Zable. She had received two wounds, — a cut in the shoulder 
and a stab in the side. They were all taken to the house of my husband by these 
three girls. They remained in the house all night doing all they could for each 
other. This was a terrible place, as hospital for invalid children, with no one 
older than thirteen years of age to give directions for the dressing of the wounds, 
nursing of the infant children, and giving food to the hungry, in a house that had 
already been plundered of everything of value." 

Early next morning Mrs. Zable and the children who had rescued the wounded 
children, went to the scene of the massacre to look after Mrs. Kreiger who was 
supposed to have been killed, but being frightened, they hid in the grass, and 
while there the Indians drove up with the ox team belonging to their party and 
stripped the clothing from the dead. They plundered other houses, and fired the 
building in which the wounded children had been placed, and all of the seven 
little ones were burned. Mrs. Zable and the five children lingered in the vicinity 
three days, and then spent eleven days and nights before reaching Fort Ridgeley. 
When the party went back to the scene of the massacre, they left the baby asleep 
in a house, but they could not return to it and never afterwards heard of it. The 
6-year-old child fell exhausted on the way, but the children cared for it, until 
it gained strength, a little nourishment having been obtained from a melon rind 
found in the road. When they came in sight of Fort Ridgeley, Mrs. Zable, crazed 
with grief and wounds, and exhausted by exposure and want, insisted that the 
fort was a camp of Indians and fled as a party advanced to their rescue. 

Mrs. Kreiger lay v^'here she fell August i8th, until the next night about mid- 
night. At this time two Indians approached to ascertain if life was extinct. "The 
next moment a sharp pointed knife was felt at my throat," said Mrs. Kreiger. 
passing downward, cutting not only the clothing entirely from my body, but 
actually penetrating the flesh." She saw one of these inhuman wretches seize 
VVilhelmina Kitzman, who was her niece, and the child cut and mangled, was 
thrown on the ground to die. The other child of Paul Kitzman was taken along 
with the Indians, crying most piteously. 

After this experience Mrs. Kreiger again became unconscious, but when she 
revived she found her own clothing, which the Indians had thrown away, and 
covering herself as best she could, made her way to Fort Ridgeley, wandering 
about, hiding in the grass and the timber until September 1st, when she was 
rescued by the soldiers, and next day lay in the only wagon that was not turned 
bottom upwards for defense at the Battle of P.irch Coulee, as related in that 
connection. 

The number of citizens killed during the outbreak was 644. 32 of whom 
were in Dakota. The number of soldiers killed at the several battles was 93, making 
a total loss of life of 737. To this list of casualties must be added the many 
wounded. Two hundred and seventy captives were surrendered. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 207 

THE COST OF THE OUTBREAK TO THE I.XDIAXS 

The property of the two Iijdian agencies belonged to the Indians and was paid 
for out of their appropriation. The crops growing on the agency farms were 
for their support, and whatever injury came to these was an injury to them. All 
of the dwellings (excepting two Indian homes), stores, mills, shops, and other 
buildings, with their contents, and the tools, implements and utensils upon the 
Yellow Medicine Agency were destroyed or rendered useless. The value was 
$425,000. 

At the lower or Redwood Agency, the stores, warehouses, shops and dwellings 
of the employes, with their contents, w'ere destroyed, together with eight houses 
belonging to the Indians and occupied by them, and a new stone warehouse nearing 
completion. The value was $375,000. Adding to this the destruction of fences, 
loss of crops, and of lumber and supplies, the loss to the Indians on the reservation 
alone was not less than, $1,000,000. 

The fund of $2,748,000 on wliich the Government had agreed to pay them five 
per cent per annum, was forfeited, and they lost the interest thereon from that time 
forward. The treaty of 1S51 was abrogated by the act of February 16, 1863 (vol. 
12, Federal Statutes at Large, p. 652). They had received under the treaty 
$2,459,350, less the sum paid for depredations. They also lost $300,000 deposited 
to their credit under the treaty of 1837. 

Four hundred and twenty-five Indians were tried by a military commission on 
the charge of murderotis participation in the massacre. Three hundred and twenty- 
one were convicted and 303 were sentenced to death. President Lincoln commuted 
the sentence of all but thirty-nine. Thirty-eight of these were hanged at Mankato, 
Alinnesota, December 26. 1862. One was pardoned by the President. Two were 
later hanged at Fort Snelling, and still another at Mankato. Among those hanged 
was a negro half-blood. Two others convicted were released after three years' 
imprisonment. 

Little Crow was killed July 3. 1863, by Chauncey Lampson, near Hutchinson, 
Minnesota. It must be said to the credit of Little Crow that it was through his 
efiforts that the captives in his camp escaped massacre. He saved them, even at 
times when his own life was threatened on that account, but it was because he 
feared the vengeance of the Sissetons and Wahpetons who were persistently 
demanding their release, or at least that no harm should come to them. 

THE COST TO THE SETTLERS 

The loss of property and crops destroyed belonging to the settlers was even 
greater. 

The $71,000 in gold, which arrived at Fort Ridgeley on the day the outbreak 
commenced, was paid under act of Congress to the settlers as part payment for 
Indian depredations. The amount so paid included, also, other items appropriated 
for their benefit amounting in the aggregate to $204,883.90. 

The burning of Sioux Falls, the death of Joseph W. Amidon and Edward B. 
Lamoure. an elder brother of Hon. ludson Lamoure. of Pembina, in the attack on 
Sioux Falls are mentioned in another chapter. The garrison at Fort Randall, the 
activity of the settlers and the "preparedness" shown at Yankton, where the 



208 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

settlers in that section of Dakota assembled for defense, doubtless prevented an 
outbreak among the Yanktons inhabiting that region. 

These are only striking incidents of Indian warfare, followed by a long list of 
bloody affairs, in which the Indians gained nothing. Other incidents have been 
mentioned in other chapters. The story of the massacre at Fort Phil Kearney 
and the Custer massacre will be told in subsequent chapters. Today the whole 
world realizes what War is. Now (October, 1916) 14,000,000 soldiers of 
Christian nations are at war. The "beasts" come out of the land, and from under 
the sea — and from the air — all engaged in the destruction of human beings, sparing 
not innocent children, weak women, decrepit old men, or the sick and wounded in 
hospitals. And for what? Anarchists, in their warfare on all forms of govern- 
ment, killed a son of royalty, and the war of August, 1914, began, coming like a 
storm from a clear sky, sweeping over and involving nations in no way responsible 
for its beginning, and making the hymn of H. W. Baker — No. 199 of the Episcopal 
Prayer Book — appropriate for every opening day: 

"O God of love, O King of Peace I 
Make wars throughout the world to cease, 
The wrath of sinful man restrain, 
Give peace, O God ! give peace again." 



CHAPTER XIV 
IN THE SIOUX COUNTRY 

BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION IN THE LAND OF THE DAKOTAS THE OLD HAND-PRESS — 

THE FIRST DAKOTA NEWSPAPER THE FIRST PERMANENT NEWSPAPER THE 

TREATY OF 185I THE MASSACRE OF LIEUTENANT GRATTAN AND HIS MEN— THE 

VERMILION SETTLEMENT — HARNEY's PUNITIVE EXPEDITION FORT PIERRE AS A 

MILITARY POST — THE BATTLE OF BLUE WATER OR ASH HOLLOW FIRST ORGAN- 
IZED SETTLEMENT IN SOUTH DAKOTA FOUNDING OF SIOUX FALLS — DAKOTA 

CHRISTENED BIG SIOUX COUNTY ORGANIZED TOWNSITES ON THE SIOUX THE 

TREATY OF 1858 CAPT. JOHN B. S. TODD FORTS RANDALL AND ABERCROMBIE 

ESTABLISHED THE BON HOMME SETTLEMENT — THE FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE ELK 

POINT — CHARLES MIX COUNTY THE PONCA AGENCY DAKOTA TERRITORY 

PROCLAIMED CHARLES F. PICOTTE FIRST DAKOTA POSTOFFICES. 

At the doorway of his wigwam 
Sat the ancient arrow-maker, 
In the land of the Dakotas, 
Making arrowheads of jasper, 
Arrowheads of chalcedony. 
At his side, in her beauty. 
Sat the lovely Minnehaha, 
Sat his daughter. Laughing Water. 

— Henry W. Longfellow. 

IN THE LAND OF THE DAKOTAS 

Beginning with tlie treaties of 1825 by the Indians on the upper Missouri 
River and the establishment of the organized fur trade on that stream and its 
tributaries, events rapidly followed, tending to confirm the Indian fears that 
their hunting grounds would soon be taken from them, and to stir them to fierce 
' resistance. The Dakotas were contemplating encroachments on their weaker 
western neighbors, when they beheld a wave of white settlement coming from 
i the West as well as from the South and East, crowding toward the very heart 
of the Sioux country. 

In 1832 Fort Pierre had become the head of the fur trade on the upper 
Missouri, and steamboats had begim making regular trips to that point and 
beyond. 

In 1838 Jean Nicholas Nicollet, assisted by Second Lieut. John Charles 
Fremont of the United States Topographical Engineers, appointed for that 
purpose by President Martin Van Buren, came to Fort Pierre on the steamer 

Vol. I 14 

209 



210 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Antelope for exploration. Leaving the Missouri River at the mouth of the 
James, or Dakota River, they extended their explorations to the Devils Lake 
region, returning East via St. Paul. 

It was while in Washington preparing his report that Lieutenant Fremont 
made the acquaintance of his future wife, Jessie Benton, daughter of Senator 
Thomas H. Benton of Missouri, which ripened into affection and resulted in an 
elopement, and an assignment of Fremont for exploration in Iowa, followed by 
pathfinding in the Rocky Mountains in 1842-44. Fremont came to be known as 
the Great Pathfinder, and, in 1856, was the first republican candidate for 
President of the United States, and later a distinguished major general in the 
Civil war. It will be noticed that the foundation of his fame and that of his 
love for the beautiful daughter of Senator Benton were laid in the land of tlie 
Dakotas — the land of the arrow-maker's daughter, Minnehaha. 

Overland immigration to Oregon commenced in 1841. In 1847 Utah was 
occupied by the Mormons, and for the protection of immigrants and others 
passing over the country, and of the frontier settlements, military posts, as they 
had been projected, were established, followed by the creation of new territories 
and the admission of new states. In February, 1848, gold was discovered in a 
mill-race at Coloma, Cal., by James W. Marshall, a native of New Jersey, who 
had just finished building a sawmill, by Indian labor, for Col. John A. Sutter, 
a Swiss, who resided at a fort near Sacramento. The gold was in the form 
of a long, irregular pumpkin seed and was tested at Monterey. The first few 
months Marshall employed about one hundred Indians from Monterey to wash 
out gold at Webber Creek, six miles from Coloma. There were then only three 
white men in that region, but the discovery of gold turned the tide of immigra- 
tion in that direction. 

Fort Kearnev was built in 1848, and the trading post on the north fork of 
the Platte knowai as Fort Kearney was purchased in 1849 and converted into a 
military post, bearing the name of Fort Laramie. 

THE OLD H.\ND-PRESS . 

As early as 1843 a printing outfit w-as brought to Lancaster, Grant County, 
Wis., for the first weekly paper of that lead-mining region. It was subse- 
quently owned by James M. Goodhue, a talented and progressive editor, who, 
being ambitious for a larger field, closed his office and removed to St. Paul in 
the autumn of 1848. On the same steamer with him was a young man from the 
same village, named John B. Callis, who helped Goodhue unload his freight 
upon the river bank at the Village of St. Paul. 

Fifty-eight years later, September 6, 1906, Gen. John P.. Callis, the noted 
colonel of the Seventh Wisconsin Infantry of the Iron Brigade, rested on his 
crutches in the splendid office of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press during the Grand 
Army encampment for that year, and narrated to reporters how he had brought 
the first font of type and the first press into the town, with "Jim" Goodhue, 
famous in its development. 

It is not well kno-ivn how many poor pioneer printers of the Northwest had 
inherited that little machine, to print "final proof" sheets in far-away frontier 
townsites. It met its fate at Sioux Falls and was buried and forgotten among 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 211 

the scrap-iron. Later still it became known to Senator Richard F. Pettigrew 
that at the back door of a humble house of his home city was the platen of the 
much-traveled old press, serving in the useful capacity of a door-step. The 
senator bought it and gave it an honorable place among historic relics of the 
Northwest territories in the State Historical Society. 

THE FIRST DAKOT.\ PRINTING PRESS 

The first printing press in Dakota was purchased at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1848, 
and was the gift of Oberlin College students to Rev. Alonzo Barnard, a 
Presbyterian missionary, about to be stationed at St. Josepli, now Walhalla, N. D. 
It was brought up the Mississippi in the summer of 1849, from Cass Lake in 
canoes down the Red Lake and Red River to Pembina, and from there trans- 
ferred to St. Joseph, in a Red River cart, and thence to Fort Garry, now 
Winnipeg, where it was used by Dr. Schultz in printing the Northwester, the 
first newspaper published on the Red River. 

THE FIRST D-.\KOT.-\ NEWSP-'\PER 

July 2, 1859, Samuel J. Albright established the Dakota Democrat at Sioux 
Falls City, the first newspaper published within the limits of Dakota Territory. 
Mr. Albright had been connected with the Free Press at St. Paul. At the date 
of the issue of the Sioux Falls Democrat there were less than two score of people 
at Sioux Falls City. The publication was suspended in March, i860, during the 
absence of Mr. Albright, until December, i860, when it was revived as the 
Western Independent, and was published occasionally thereafter until March, 
1861. by J. W. Stewart. According to the record given above, Mr. Albright's 
was not the first printing press in Dakota. The Dakota Republican, the first 
permanent newspaper in Dakota, was established by J. Elwood Clark and James 
Bedell September 6, 1861. 

THE TRE.\TV OF 1851 

Minnesota Territory was organized in 1849. The plains west of the Missouri 
River were occupied by Indian Tribes claiming them under undefined hereditary 
rights, or by the power of might. The Laramie treaty of 185 1 defined the 
boundaries of their several claims. The Mendota treaties of 185 1 ceded Indian 
lands lying on and extending to the western boundary of Minnesota Territory. 
These treaties were made without the consent of the masses of the tribes and 
were not accepted by them. There were bad hearts and hot blood among the 
Indians. 

Fort Riley in Kansas and Fort Ridgeley in Minnesota, the main reliance of 
the settlers of Dakota in 1862, as related in Chapter XIII, were built in 1852. 

THE MASSACRE OF LIEUTENANT GRATTAN AND HIS MEN 

In June, 1853, two young Indians fired their guns into the air, in the vicinity 
of a frontier military post, contrary to military regulations, lest alarm be created 



\j 



212 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

among passing immigrants or others having a right to be in the Indian country 
limit. Henry B. Flemming, then stationed at Fort Laramie, was sent to the Indian 
village with a detail of soldiers and demanded the surrender of the two young 
men. The Indians failing to comply with his demand, he ordered his men to fire 
on the Indians, killing three and wounding several others, and seized two young 
braves whom he carried away for punishment. Indian depredations followed as 
a natural result. 

August 19, 1854, Lieutenant John L. Grattan of the Sixth United States 
Infantry, who was placed in command of a detail of seventeen men, which he had 
increased by unauthorized volunteers to thirty-one, went to the Indian village 
of Singing Bear, and« demanded the surrender of the Indians who had committed- 
this alleged depredation. There were upwards of a thousand Indians in the camp 
awaiting the payment of their annuities and preparing for their autumn hunt. 
Singing Bear, who was friendly to the whites, asked for time, which was denied, 
and Lieutenant Grattan ordered his men to fire. Singing Bear fell mortally 
wounded, and though he pleaded with his men not to retaliate, in less than five 
minutes Lieutenant Grattan and his thirty-one men lay dead, sacrificed to the fury 
of the Indians led by Little Thunder, father of Spotted Tail, who succeeded Sing- 
ing Bear in command of the camp. Their vengeance fell like a bolt from heaven — 
not a man from the command of the indiscreet young officer escaped. 

The Indians then formed into small bands, and many immigrants and others 
suffered the loss of life or property as the result of Lieutenant Grattan's rash act. 

THE VERMILION SETTLEMENT 

Nebraska Territory was organized in 1854. At Vermilion, S. D., on the 
border of Nebraska, Robert Dickson, and subsequently the American Fur Com- 
pany, established trading posts, as related in Chapter XI, and Capt. Henry 
Vanderburg of the Leavenworth Punitive Expedition of 1823, settled there in 
1855. Alexander C. Young, who came to Fort Pierre in 1834, retired from the 
fur trade and settled on a ranch near Vermilion at the same time, and Henry 
Kennerly in 1859. ^^ '^'^'^ year a Norwegian colony located here, among them 
Ole Olson, Henry Severson and Syvert H. Myron, and James McHenry erected 
a store building, the first permanent improvement in the village. George Brown, 
Parker N. Brown, Marcellus Lathrop, Miner Robinson, Ole Bottolfson and about 
a dozen other settlers came that year. Mrs. Lathrop and Mrs. George Brown 
were the first white women to settle in Clay County. Hon. Andrew J. Harlan 
and a number of others came in 1861. 

Notable events in the history of the territory were the first wedding ceremony, 
which took place at Vermilion in i860, when Jacob Deuel — for whom Deuel 
County, South Dakota, was named — and Miss Robinson were married ; the first 
Methodist service, i860, conducted by the Rev. S. F. Ingham, who reached 
that village October 13, i860; the Presbyterian Church, built in 1861, claimed 
to have been the first church edifice erected in South Dakota, known as Father 
Martin's Church, Rev. Charles D. Martin, pastor, where was held the first 
religious meeting and where was installed the first church bell aside from the one 
by Father Belcourt at St. Joseph ; the first term of court in Dakota, Judge Lorenzo 
P. Williston presiding, convened at Vermilion the first Monday in August, 1861. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 213 

Harney's expedition 

Growing out of the Grattan massacre, the Harney expedition was authorized 
March 23, 1855, and sent to punish the Indians. Four companies of the Second 
United States Infantry, then stationed at Carhsle Barracks, Pennsylvania, and 
two stationed at Fort Riley, Kan., were ordered to proceed to Fort Pierre and 
establish a military post at that point. The expedition was to consist of about 
a thousand officers and men, some being then stationed at Forts Laramie and 
Kearney, Neb., and others to be assembled at points designated. 

For the transf)ortation of troops, equipment and supplies the Government 
purchased the steamers "William Baird" and "Grey Cloud" and chartered others. 
Supply depots were established at Forts Laramie, Kearney and Pierre. 

FORT PIERRE AS A MILITARY POST 

The purchase and occupation of Fort Pierre as a military post in 1855 was 
really the beginning of the occupation of the Dakotas for other than trading 
purposes, excepting an occasional settler identified with the Indians in some 
manner. 

For the supply depot at Fort Pierre, Quartermaster General Thomas S. Jessup 
negotiated for the purchase of the trading post at that point, through Honore 
Picotte, representing Pierre Choteau, Jr., & Company, on behalf of the American 
Fur Company, the delivery being made by Maj. Charles E. Galpin on behalf of 
said company. The purchase price was $45,000. The contract called for delivery- 
June I, 1855, and with such delivery Fort Pierre ceased to be a trading post and 
became a military, establishment. 

The buildings at Fort Pierre numbered twenty, within a stockade inclosing 
about two acres. They included a store building, a 100 by 24-foot warehouse, 
quarters for the employes, sawmill, shops for the blacksmith, carpenter and 
saddler, stables and powder-house, the latter of concrete and the others of logs. 

July 7, 185s, the Arabia arrived with Company G, Second United States 
Infantry, numbering 100 officers and men. The Grey Cloud followed with 
Company A, eighty-two men, and the William Baird with Company I, fifty-four 
men, under command of Capt. Henry W. Wessels. Maj. R. Montgomery,, the 
regimental commander, and the first commander of the post, arrived the next 
week with Paymaster Maj. Augustus W. Gaines, Capt. Parmea T. Turnley, 
Assistant Quartermaster Capt. Marcus D. Simpson, Assistant Commissary of 
Subsistence Capt. Thomas C. Madison, assistant surgeon, and Lieutenant Gouv- 
erneur K. Warren of the Topographical Engineers. August 2d, Capt. Nathaniel 
Lyon arrived on the Clara with thirty-seven men of Company C and thirty-five 
of Company B. Capt. William M. Gardner arrived on the Genoa August 19th 
with eighty-two officers and men. Captain Lyon, six years later a distinguished 
brigadier-general in the Civil war, was killed at Wilson Creek August 10, 1861, 
and Lieutenant Warren became a major general of distinction in the same war. 

Captains Charles S. Lovell and Alfred Sully, with Companies A and F, 
marched overland from Fort Ridgeley, Minn. Captain Sully, in 1861, was colonel 
of the First Minnesota, and afterwards brigadier general in command of the 
Sully expedition of 1863-64, which fought several battles on Dakota soil. Fort 
Sully was named for him. 



214 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

THE BATTLE OF BLUE WATER OR ASH HOLLOW 

Being ready for the campaign, the expedition marched into the Sioux country. 
September 3, 1855, Little Thunder, an unusually stalwart and intelligent Indian, 
and his band, were at the mouth of a broad canyon on the north fork of the 
Platte River, engaged in their annual autumn hunt — preparing their winter supply 
of food. Their women and children were with them ; grazing for their horses was 
good, and there was plenty of fuel for the care of the meat ; buffalo, deer and 
elk were abundant. It was an ideal hunting ground, and it was evident they 
feared no attack and anticipated none. But Brig. -Gen. William S. Harney, 
according to the purpose for which he was sent into that country, attacked them 
with Companies E and K, Second Dragoons ; G, Fourth Artillery ; A, E, H, I and 
K, Sixth Infantry and E, Tenth Infantry, without warning. Harney's loss was 
five. The Indian loss was eighty-six killed and seventy wounded, among them 
many women and children. But this was the only battle of the campaign. The 
Indians sued for peace and a treaty of peace followed. 

AFTER THE BATTLE 

General Harney's command returned to the several supply points, and Genenil 
Harney to the work of establishing a permanent military post on the Missouri 
River. 

Fort Pierre was not a suitable place in his opinion, owing to lack of timber 
and meadow for a permanent military post. Lieutenant Warren surveyed 270 
squaTe miles on the proposed military reservation, finding but 10,000 acres of 
meadow and timber land. Accordingly another point was selected and the force 
at Fort Pierre was distributed in the main to other points for the winter. 

Captains Lovell and Sully with their companies remained at Fort Pierre. 
Captain Wessels established a winter camp five miles above Fort Pierre, on the 
east side of the river. Captain Gardner, Camp Miller, eighteen miles above on 
the east side ; Captain Cady, Camp Bacon, ten miles above Fort Pierre ; Captain 
Howe, Camp Canfield, between the White and Niobrara rivers. 

Fort Lookout, opposite Chamberlain, had become an important trading post, 
and was ambitious to become the permanent military post. The headquarters 
was at this point under Capt. Nathaniel Lyon. 

After the battle with Harney's command Spotted Tail and two young braves 
from his father's camp came to the fort, in full regalia, and offered their lives 
to save their tribe from further punishment. 

Fort Pierre was abandoned in May, 1857, as a military post, though its occu- 
pation was continued by Captains Sully and Lovell until 1858, when they 
returned overland to Fort Ridgeley. Captains Albemarle Cady and Marshall S. 
Howe were among the officers of that period at Fort Pierre. 

After the sale of Fort Pierre for a military post, a trading post was established 
four miles above Fort Pierre by Joseph La Frambois, known as Fort La Frambois. 
It was here that the Indian chief Bear Rib, as narrated in Chapter XII, was 
murdered May 27, 1862, by men of his tribe, for receiving annuities intended for 
Indians who had refused to receive them, fearing that it involved the sale of 
their land, which many of the Indians were determined not to permit. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 215 

FIRST ORGANIZED SEITLEMENT IN SOUTH DAKOTA 

That portion of South Dakota east of the Big Sioux, ceded by the Mendota 
treaty of 1851, left in unorganized territory by the admission of Minnesota in 
May, 1858, was organized by the last Territorial Legislature of Minnesota as 
Big Sioux and Midway counties, Sioux Falls being the county seat of the former 
and Medary of the latter. Flandrau, or Flandreau, as it came to be officially 
known, was the county seat of Rock County, also created by the Minnesota 
Legislature. 

William Wallace Kingsbury, the last territorial delegate in Congress from the 
Territory of Minnesota, continued to draw his pay as a delegate from Minnesota 
until the end of his term, March 3, 1859, and to be entitled to a seat in Congress 
as such. He resided at Endion, Minn. He came from Towanda. Pa., and died 
at Tarpon, Fla., April 17, 1892. 

FOUNDING OF SIOUX FALLS 

In Jean N. Nicollet's report of his explorations, published under the title of 
"Nicollet's Travels in the Northwest in 1839," he gave a graphic description of 
Sioux Falls which attracted the attention to that region of Dr. J. M. Staples of 
Dubuque, Iowa, who organized a company consisting of himself. Mayor Hether- 
ington of that city, Dennis Mahoney (afterwards editor of the Dubuque Herald), 
Austin Adams, George P. Waldron, William Tripp, Wilmot W. Brookings and 
Dr. J. L. Philips known as the Western Townsite Company of Dubuque, Iowa. 

In October, 1856, Ezra Millard, then of Sioux City, Iowa, later of Omaha. 
Neb., and David M. Mills, representing this company, went to Sioux Falls for 
the purpose of locating a townsite at that point, but their first sight of the falls 
was interrupted by a party of Sioux Indians, who angrily turned them away and 
ordered them to stay not beyond the rising of the morning sun. The Indians 
appeared to be in possession and in earnest, and so they went ; but Mr. Mills 
returned a few weeks later, built a house, staked a claim, and held his ground 
until the next spring, when he was joined by Jesse T. Jarrett, Barclay farrett, 
John McClellan, James Farrell and Halvor Olsen. Jesse Jarrett was in charge of 
the party and located for the Western Townsite Company 320 acres, described 
as the NW H Sec. 9 and NE '4 Sec. 16, T. loi, N., R. 40 W., 5th P.M., naming 
their location Sioux Falls. 

In June, 1857, the Dakota Land Company was organized at St. Paul for the 
purpose of colonizing that portion of the lands ceded in 1831 at MendbtaJ not 
included in the pending bill for the admission of Minnesota, which would be left 
as unorganized tcrritorv if the bill passed. 

Judge Charles E. Flandrau of St. Paul, Jefferson P. Kidder, Alpheus G. Fuller, 
Joseph E. Gay, Samuel J. Albright, Baron Freidenreich, James M. Allen, Franklin 
J. Dewitt, Byron M. Smith, Colonel William H. Noble and others were associated 
in this enterprise. Colonel Noble had laid out and worked a road across the 
unsurveyed country. The purpose of the company was to acquire desirable lands 
for settlement and townsite purposes and to lay the foundation for a new 
territory. 

The following members of the company, or its employes, left St. Paul early 



\ 



216 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

in June, 1857, going by steamboat on the Minnesota River to the most available 
point, and thence overland to the Big Sioux, viz. : Franklin J. Dewitt, Alpheus 
G. Fuller, Samuel A. Medary, Jr., J. K. Brown, Col. William H. Noble, B. F. 
Brown, James L. Fiske, Artemas Gale, James M. Allen, William Settley, Byron 
M. Smith, A. J. Kilgore and Arnold Merrill. On leaving the Minnesota River 
they divided into three parties. 

Alpheus G. Fuller, Byron .M. Smith, Col. William H. Noble, Artemas Gale, 
James M. Allen, A. J. Kilgore and James L. Fiske reached Sioux Falls about 
June 20th and found the Dubuque party mentioned abo\e had preceded them. 
They were warmly welcomed, however. 

DAKOTA CHRISTENED 

The St. Paul party organized, located 320 acres by land scrip, voted that the 
new territory they came to found should be called Dakota, and that Sioux Falls 
\ City should be its capital. 

The party headed by Dewitt located at Flandrau, in the unorganized county of 
Rock, and the one headed by Medary located at Medary in Midway County. 
Sioux Falls was to be the initial point for their operations. 

The Sioux Falls contingent left James McBride and James L. Fiske to repre- 
sent them, and the Dubuque party Jesse Jarrett, Barclay Jarrett, John McCIellan, 
James Farwell and Halvor Olsen in charge of their interests. 

In July, 1857, the Indians became very threatening and some of the party 
left on that account. 

August 23, 1857, Jesse T. Jarrett, John McCIellan, Dr. J. L. Phillips, Wilmot 
W. Brookings, David M. ]\Iills, A. J. Kilgore, S. B. Atwood, Smith Kinsey, James 
Callahan and Mr. Godfrey returned, armed and provisioned to hold the ground 
selected. They brought a saw mill and other equipment. Mr. Brookings was 
appointed superintendent. Later James M. Allen, William Little, James W. 
Evans, James L. Fiske and James McBride arrived and erected several buildings, 
including a store and three dwelling-houses. 

That fall James M. Allen, William Little, James W. Evans, James L. Fiske, 
James McBride, James McCall and C. Merrill of the St. Paul colony arrived. 

In 1858 John Goodwin and wife, Charles S. White and daughter Ella, and 
Amos Duley and wife came. The latter later returned to Lake Shetek, Minn., 
where Mr. Duley was killed, and his wife and daughter made captive in the 
Sioux uprising of 1862. They were ransomed by Maj. Charles E. Galpin, acting 
for Dakota settlers. William Stevens, Samuel Masters, Henry Masters, J. B. 
Greenway, George P. Waldron and Margaret Callahan, who later wedded J. B. 
Barnes, Joseph B. Amidon and family, John Lawrence, Berne C. Fowler, 
J. B. Barnes, John. Rouse, James W. Lynch, Jefferson P. Kidder, Samuel F. 
Brown and N. F. Brown were settlers that year, and Alpheus G. Fuller returned 
from Washington, having been unsuccessful in securing recognition by Congress 
as a delegate for the proposed new territory, to which position he had been 
appointed by the county commissioners of Big Sioux County. 

The Minnesota Legislature had created the counties of Pembina, Rock, Big 
Sioux and Midway, and when admitted as a State, portions of Pembina and 
Rock, and all of the Big Sioux and Midway were left in unorganized territory. 



EARLY HISTORY OF XORTH DAKOTA 217 

BIG SIOUX COUNTY ORGANIZED 

This county was organized by Governor Alexander Ramsey of Minnesota, by 
the appointment of William Little, James McBride and A. L. Kilgore county 
commissioners, James M. Allen register of deeds, James W. Evans sheriff, James 
L. Fiske judge of probate, Wilniot A\'. Brookings district attorney, Dr. J. L. 
Phillips and James McCall justices of the peace. The Dakota Legislature of 
1862 changed the name of the county to Alinnehaha, and confirmed the acts of 
the officers after the admission of Minnesota. 

TOWNSITES ON THE SIOUX 

Townsites were also located by the Dakota Land Company at Flandrau, Rock 
County (now Flandrau, Moody County), at Medary, Midway County, fifteen 
miles north of Flandrau on the Big Sioux, where the Government trail crossed 
that stream; at Renshaw, twenty miles north of Medary, and at Eminja, in 
X'ermilion County, and Commerce City at the great bend of the Big Sioux, half 
way between Sioux Falls and the Missouri River. 

There were about a dozen settlers at Medary, but in 1858 they were driven 
out by the Indians. Flandrau was also abandoned, and an attempt was made to 
drive out the settlers at Sioux Falls, which did not succeed until the uprising 
of the Indians in 1862, when Joseph B. Amidon and his son William were killed 
by the Indians and Sioux Falls became depopulated for nearly six years. After 
the settlers left, the Indians burned the village. Wilmot W. Brookings, George 
P Waldron and family, Berne C. Fowler and wife, James W. Evans, Barclay 
Jarrett, Charles S. White and family, William Stevens, Mrs. Amidon and family 
and John McClellan went to Yankton ; Amos Shaw went to Vermilion ; Dr. J. L. 
Phillips and Henry Masters and wife returned to Dubuque, Iowa. There was 
another person there named Foster, who was with the Yankton party, which was 
aided by Lieut. James A. Bacon of Company A, Dakota Cavalry, to make good 
their escape. This company, consisting of forty-one men, was encamped at Sioux 
Falls when the Indians attacked. 

THE TRE.\TY OF 1 858 

April 19, 1858, a treaty was negotiated at Washington by Charles E. Mix, 
commissioner on behalf of the United States, and sixteen Yankton Sioux chiefs — 
three of them represented by Charles F. Picotte, their agent — ceding the lands 
to the United States in Southeastern Dakota described as follows: 

Beginning at the mouth of the Tehan-kas-an-data, or Calumet or Big Sioux 
River : thence up the [Missouri River to the mouth of Pa-hoh-wa-kan or East 
Medicine Knoll River ; thence up said river to its head ; thence in a direction to 
the head of the main fork of the Won-dusk-kah-for or Snake River: thence down 
said river to its junction with the Tehan-san-gan or Jacques or James River; 
thence in a direct line to the northern point of Lake Kampeska ; thence along the 
northern shore of said lake and its outlet to the junction of said outlet with 
the said Big Sioux River; thence down the Big Sioux River to its junction with 
the Missouri River. 



1 



218 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 



This cession included all iskinds in the Missouri River from Sioux City to 
near Fort Pierre. 

CAPT. JOHN B. S. TODD 

Capt. John B. S. Todd, a cousin of Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of Abraham 
Lincoln, was on duty at Fort Pierre as captain of Company A, Sixth United States 
Infantry, resigning September i6, 1856, to become sutler (military post trader) 
at Fort Randall, and to become a member of the firm of Frost, Todd & Co., who 
had trading posts at Sioux City, Elk Point and midway between Elk Point and 
Vermilion ; one at the latter place, one on the James River and one at Yankton. 

It was the active influence of this company that brought about the treaty of 
1858, one of the firm being in Washington while the negotiations were pending 
and while the treaty was before the Senate, by which it was ratified March 9, 
. I 1859, being proclaimed March 31, 1859. As licensed traders they had the right 

to occupy Indian territory, and through their employes were able to select and 
occupy the lands desired for townsite purposes, while the Government, under its 
treaties, was in duty bound to prevent others from doing so. 

The election of Abraham Lincoln as President, in i860, naturally increased 
the prestige of Captain Todd, who was appointed by Mr. Lincoln a brigadier- 
general of volunteers September 19, 1861, his appointment expiring by limitation 
July 17, 1862. General Todd was elected delegate to Congress v\'hen the territory 
of Dakota was organized, and remained a factor in its politics, business and 
development until his death. January 5, 1872. 
• 

FORT R.\NDALL ESTABLISHED 

In the spring of 1856 General Harney selected the site for the military post 
at Fort Randall, which was named for Lieut. Col. and Paymaster Daniel 
Randall, then recently deceased, and on its completion became an important 
link in the chain of military posts designed for the protection of the advancing 
settlements. 

The first troops to -arrive at Fort Randall to begin its construction were 
eighty-four recruits under command of Lieut. David S. Stanley. He and 
Lieut, and Quartermaster George H. Page built the fort, the buildings from 
Forts Pierre and Lookout having been removed to Fort Randall by Maj. Charles 
E. Galpin, on the steamboat D. H. Morton. Lieut.-Col. Francis Lee commanded 
the first garri.son in the spring of 1857. Lieut.-Col. John Munroe of the Fourth 
United States Artillery, was in command of Fort Randall in 1861, then garrisoned 
by four companies. Three companies were sent east, leaving one, in command 
of Capt. John D. Brown, who left without leave at the breaking out of the CiviF 
war and became a colonel in the Confederate army. He was succeeded at Fort 
Randall by Lieut. Thomas R. Tannett, who resigned to become a captain in a 
Massachusetts regiment on the side of the Union. In December, t86i. Capt. 
Bradlev Mahana of the Fourteenth Iowa was assigned to duty at Fort Randall. 

FORT ABERfROMBIE 

Fort Abercrombie was authorized by act of Congress, approved March 3, 
1857, to be established at the most eligible site near the head of the Red River 




GENERAL JOHN B. S. TODD 
First delegate to Congress from Dakota 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 219 

of the North, in the vicinity of Graham's Point in Minnesota. It was built on 
the west side of Red River, by a force under the supervision of Lieut.-Col. John 
J. Abercrombie of the Second United States Infantry, which arrived August 
28, 1858, and spent the winter there. The fort was abandoned in 1859, but 
reoccupied and rebuilt in i860 by Maj. Hannibal Day of the Second United 
States Infantry. 

Captain Markham of Company B, Second Minnesota Volunteers, relieved the 
regulars some time in July, 1861, and was succeeded by Capt. Peter Mantor with 
a detachment of Company C of the Second Regiment Minnesota Volunteers, who 
were found there by Company D, Fourth Minnesota Volunteers, under Capt. 
T. E. Inman, mustered into the service October 10, 1861, and immediately 
dispatched to Fort Abercrombie, arriving October 22, 1861. Captain Inman 
remained in command of the fort until the last of March, 1862, when he was 
relieved by Capt. John Vanderhorck, commanding Company D, Fifth Alinnesota 
Volunteers. 

Fort Abercrombie was the nucleus for the first settlement of that region in 
1858-59 and one of the principal points of Indian attack during the uprising of 
1862, as described in Chapter XIII. 

THE BON HOMME SETTLEMENT 

In May, 1858, a party en route to Pike's Peak, from Dodge County, Minne- 
sota, settled at Bon Homme, D. T., concluding to look for gold in the grass 
roots of Dakota rather than in the rocks of distant Pike's Peak. The names 
of the party were John H. Shober, John Remune, Edward and Daniel Gififord, 
Fred Carman, John Mantle, John Tallman, Thomas J. Tate, W. W. Warford, 
George Falkenberg, Lewis E. Jones, Aaron Hammond, wife and child ; Reuben 
Wallace and H. D. Stager. Another party from Dodge County, Minnesota, 
arrived November 12, 1859, consisting of C. G. Irish and family,, John Butter- 
field, Jonathan Brown and family, Francis Rounds, Cornelia Rounds and George 
T. Rounds. C. E. Rowley and Laban H. Litchfield arrived December 26, 1859. 
Most of these became permanent settlers. William M. Armour settled in this 
county in 1858, but went on to Pike's Peak in 1859. 

The settlers were, however, ejected by the military authorities in the fall of 
1858, and moved across the river. Their cabins were torn down, and the logs 
thrown into the river or burned. This course was taken with all settlers on land 
covered by the Yankton treaty of 1858, and the settlers were not suffered to 
return until the following spring, when the treaty was ratified and proclaimed. 
John H. Shober was a lawyer, and became prominent in the afifairs of the 
territory. George I. Tackett was a settler in 1859. 

FIRST IN EDUC.^TI0N — FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE 

Aside from the Pembina Mission, Bon Homme had the first school, and built 
the first schoolhouse in Dakota. The building erected by Shober and "other 
settlers was 14 by 15 feet, built of logs, with no floor, and one six-pane, 8 by ic 
window. A monument at Bon Homme commemorales the.erection of this school- 
house. Miss Emma Bradford, whose father, Daniel Btadford, and brother Henr_v 



220 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

came in i860, taught this school that summer. The pupils were John, Ira and 
Melissa Brown, Anna Bradford, Anna, Mary and George McDaniels, George 
and Delia Rounds. 

THE SETTLEMENT AT ELK POINT 

Eli B. Wixson came to Dakota in 1859, and July 22 settled at a place he 
named Elk Point, and built a large log hotel. The name was given by the 
Indians on account of a runway for elk between two points of timber. 

In 1857 William P. Lyman, Samuel Mortimer, Arthur C. Van Aleter and 
Samuel Gerou settled on the James River, near Yankton. 

OTHER SETTLEMENTS 

There were also settlements opposite Forts Pierre, Randall and Abercrombie 
and at Brule Creek, but each was independent of the other with no concerted 
action. 

Joseph La Plant settled at Big Sioux Point in 1849. John Brughier came 
to Fort Pierre in 1836. He located near the mouth of the Big Sioux River in 
May, 1849. John C. McBride, Christopher Maloney, Antoine Fleury, Adolph 
Mason, Robear Primeau, Archie Christy, Gustav Christy and James Somers 
were of this settlement prior to the organization of Dakota Territory. Paul 
Paquette settled on the Big Sioux in 1854, and operated a ferry. Austin Cole 
selected lands near the ferry in 1857, and became a settler in 1859. 

Milton M. Rich, Mahlon Gore, E. B. Lamoure and Judson Lamoure settled 
at Brule in i860. Other settlers that year were M. B. Kent, Myron Cuykendall, 
A. B. Stoddard, Amos Dexter, Orin Fletcher, John Reams and Thomas C. 
Watson. 

George Stickney and family came to Elk Point in i860, Mrs. Stickney being 
the first white woman to take up her abode there. John R. Wood and family, 
however, came about the same time; also William Adams, Myron Sheldon, 
Hastings Scammond, David Benjamin, N. J. Wallace, J. A. Wallace and Michael 
Ryan. Among other settlers at that time in the vicinity of Elk Point were Elmer 
Seward, Lester Seward, Thaddeus Andrews, Carl Kingsley, Patrick Comfort, 
Nicholas Comfort, Thomas Olson, John Thompson, J. O. Taylor, Chris Thomp- 
son, J. E. Hoisington, William H. H. Fate, James Fate, Thomas Fate, Ole 
Bottolfson, Hiram Stratton, E. C. Collins, William Flannery, K. P. Ronne, 
Runyan Compton, M. D. Weston, Alvin Cameron, R. H. Langdon, David Pennell, 
Sherman Clyde, John Donovan, David Walters, David Green, Howard Mosier, 
Solomon B. Stough. Daniel Ballinger. Silas Rider, Hegeick Townsend, Anthony 
Summey, Josiah Bowman, Charles Patton, Preston Hotchkiss, James Phillips, 
Benjamin Briggs, F. W. Smyth, Jacob Kiplinger, Patrick Carey, Daniel Con- 
nolley, Michael Currey. Wesley McNeil, George Geisler, J. W. Vandevere, 
Timothy Brigan, L. K. Fairchild, Henry Rowe, C. W. Briggs, C. M. Northrup, 
Hiram Gardner, William Baldwin, Frederic Strobel, D. M. Mills, W. W. Adams, 
Joseph Dugraw, M. U. Hoyt, J. P. Benner, Michael Ryan, Charles LeBreeche, 
Joseph Yerter, Desire Chaussee and Antonia Rennilards. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 221 

IN CHARLES MIX COUNTY 

There were a few settlers in Charles Mix County in 1858, engaged in con- 
tracting in connection with Fort Randall. In 1861 the population was about fifty, 
among them F. D. Pease, E. M. Wall, Felicia Fallas, Colin Lament, John Mallert, 
E. Fletcher, G. A. Fisher, Joseph Ellis, Joseph V. Hamilton, Colin Campbell, 
William Bartlett, Abel Forcess, John Archambault, Paul Harol, Napoleon Jack 
and Cardinelle Grant. Grant, reputed to be .the first white settler in Dakota, was 
born in Canada in 1765. Hamilton was a son of Major Thomas Hamilton of the 
United States Army, and had been a sutler at Fort Snelling and Fort Leaven- 
worth, built in 1827, and was known as Alajor Hamilton. He was credited with 
saving the life of General Kearney and 100 soldiers, who had appeared unarmed 
at a council with the Indians. Discovering a purpose to massacre the whites, 
Major Hamilton seized a flaming fire-brand, mounted a keg of powder, and told 
the Indians that imless they immediately threw down their arms he would fire 
the powder and destroy all, both whites and Indians. The Indians threw down 
their arms and the council proceeded without further danger. 

THE I'ONC.\ .-AGENCY 

This agency was the first settlement west of the Missouri River. Among the 
settlers at the Agency and in the vicinity, 1858 to 1861, were J. Shaw Gregory, 
James Tufts, Robert M. Hagaman, Peter Keegan, Jonathan Lewis, Harry Hargis, 
Joel A. Potter, George Detwiler, Robert Bamum and Charles McCarthy, who 
as sheriff of Burleigh County was drowned by breaking through the ice on the ■ 
Upper IMissouri, in 1875. Gregory was a son of Rear Admiral Francis H. 
Gregory, and a man of ability. Gregory County was named for him, and Potter. 
County for Joel A. Potter. The Bijou Hills were named for Antoine Bijou, an 
early trader in Charles Mix County, according to some authorities, but old 
settlers in the vicinity declare the hills were named "Bijou" because of a great 
number of crystals of gypsum sparkling in the sun, and visible at a great distance 
on the steep rain-washed surface of the blue clay, which forms the bulk of 
these elevations. Bijou, meaning jewel in French, would naturally suggest itself 
for a name to the French voyageurs on the river, who could easily gather the 
crystals from the blue clay along the bluffs when boating. 

DAKOTA TERRITORY PROCLAIMED 

The settlers at Sioux Falls having proclaimed the unorganized territory, left 
out when IMinnesota was admitted, a new territory to be known as Dakota, a 
mass meeting was held at Sioux Falls, September 28, 1858, and it was ordered 
that a meeting should be held on the fourth day of October for the election of 
two members of the Council and five members of the House of Representatives. 

An election was held and the alleged legislature met and elected Samuel 
Masters governor, and passed a memorial to Congress for recognition as a 
territory. 

A year later another election was ordered, to elect a delegate to Congress and 
the various countv officers and members of the Legislature. 



222 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

At this election an alleged vote of 1,689 was cast for Jefferson P. Kidder, 
and 147 for Alpheus G. Fuller, for delegate to Congress. Congress refused to 
recognize the organization, and it was questioned whether there were that many 
people in the territory. The Federal census of i860 gave the number as 2,128, of 
whom 1,600 were in the Pembina district, largely mixed-blood Indians, while 
an enrollment under the direction of the Governor of Dakota, in 1861, showed 
a population of 2,376, of whom 603 were in the Red River district. The persons 
taking this census were Henry D. Betts, Wilmot W. Brookings, Andrew J. Harlan, 
Obed Foote, George M. Pinney and J. D. Moore. 

The settlements were known as the Red River district, embracing Pembina, 
St. Joseph and other adjacent settlements, population 603; \'ermilion and Big 
.Sioux districts, with settlements at Brule Creek, 47; Point on the Big Sioux, 
104; Elk Point, 61; Vermilion, 265; Bottom and Clay Creek, 216; Sioux Falls 
district, 60; Yankton district, 287; Bon Homme district, 163; Western district, 
with settlements at Pease and Hamilton, 181 ; Fort Randall, 210; Yankton agency, 
76; and Ponca agency, 129. 

The census in the Pembina district was not accepted as correct, for the 
reason that the greater part of the settlers were out on their annual hunt at the 
time it was taken. 

The census of i860 showed 84 horses, 19 mules, 286 milch cows, 318 oxen, 
338 other cattle, 22 sheep and 287 swine within the limits of Dakota, and the 
following farm products, viz.: 915 bushels of wheat, 700 bushels of rye, 250 
bushels of oats, 280 bushels of peas and beans, 9,489 bushels of potatoes, 1,670 
pounds of butter, 1,112 tons of hay, 20 gallons of maple syrup. 

When Dakota Territory was organized, in 1861, gold was discovered in 
Montana, and that fact added to the push of immigration, and to the alarm of 
. the Indians and the need of protection for settlers. Kansas was literally bleeding- 
in the strife between the pro-slavery and free-state elements. 

CHARLES F. PICOTTF. 

Perhaps no name deserves more consideration in the early history of tlie 
Dakotas than that of Charles F. Picotte, son of Honore Picotte and the daughter 
of Two Lance, known to the early settlers of the Missouri slope as Mrs. Major 
Galpin, a full-blooded Sioux, her father a brave and influential chief. When eight 
years of age young Picotte was placed in charge of the Rev. Father Peter John 
DeSmet, the Belgian missionary, who sent him to a boarding school at St. Joseph, 
Mo., where he remained fourteen years, acquired a liberal education in French 
and English, and, returning to his tribe at twenty-two, was employed by his 
step- father in trade with the Indians. 

FIRST D.\KOTA POST OFFICES 

.An examination of the records of the Post Office Department shows the 
following facts relative to the establishment of early Dakota post offices : Pem- 
bina, 1855, Joseph Rolette, postmaster: Sioux Falls City, then in Nebraska Ter- 
ritory, James M. Allen, June 15, 1858; J. L. Phillips (Joseph B. Amidon, 
assistant^ June 6, 1861 : Sioux Falls, James Andrews, June 24, 1867; St. Joseph 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 223 

(now Walhalla), Charles Grant, January 20, 1855; Medary (Midway County), 
John W. McBean, January 6, 1857, succeeded by Gustave Kragenbuhl, August 
3, 1857; Greenwood, Alexander H. Redfield, September 29, 1859, succeeded by 
Walter A. Burleigh, June 28, 1861 ; Fort Pierre, Edward G. Atkinson, September 
7, 1855; Niobrara, Bonneville G. Shelley, March 10, 1857; Ponca Agency, J. Shaw 
Gregory, March 14, i860, succeeded by John B. Hoffman, July 31, 1861 ; Ver- 
milion, Hugh Compton, ilarch 25, 1855, succeeded by Samuel Mulholland, April 
17, i860; Yankton, Downer T. Bramble, April 17, i860; Elk Point, Eli B. Wixon, 
July 9 i860; Fort Abercrombie, Jesse ^I. Stone, August 9, i860; Bon Homme, 
Moses Herrick, October 2, 1861, succeeded by Richard M. Johnson, December 
17, 1862; Fort Randall, John B. S. Todd, January 18, 1857, succeeded by Jesse 
Wherry, September 29, 1861. J. Shaw Gregory became postmaster at Fort Rice, 
established January 8, 1866. 



CHAPTER XV 
DAKOTA PIONEERS 

THE CEDED LAND IN DAKOTA — THE UPPER MISSOURI RIVER TOWNSITE COMPANY 

YANKTON FOUNDED — THE TREATY OF 1858— THE FIRST CABIN HOME — COL. 
ENDS STUTSMAN MOSES K. ARMSTRONG THE FIRST SURVEYS ^DAKOTA TOWN- 
SHIP LINES AND SECTION LINES — ^THE HOMESTEAD LAW THE FIRST LAND 

OFFICE THE FIRST LAND ENTRY THE PEMBINA SETTLEMENTS THE CUSTOM 

HOUSE WILLIAM H. MOORHEAD JOSEPH ROLETTE AND THE MINNESOTA CAPI- 
TAL BILL SETTLEMENTS NEAR FARGO THE FIRST FLOUR MILL — THE FIRST 

FARMS IN THE RED RIVER VALLEY OTHERS IDENTIFIED WITH DAKOTA PRIOR TO 

1861 DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN THE BLACK HILLS THE PICOTTES, GALPIN, PARKIN 

AND GERARD IRON HEART: A TRAPPER's THRILLING EXPERIENCE MAJ. JOHN 

GARLAND. 

"Westward the course of empire takes its way 

The four first acts already past. 
A fifth shall close the drama with the day : 
Time's noblest offspring is the last." 

— Right Rcv'd George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne. 

This mystical verse is from lines "On the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learn- 
ing in America," by Bishop Berkeley (1684-1753), contemporary with the great 
poets Pope and Swift and deservedly as popular, who, in the hope of Christianiz- 
ing the Indians, made a futile attempt at settling and establishing a college in 
Newport, R. I., in 1729. These lines are illustrated in the capitol at 
Washington, the national seat of government, by a large painting that represents 
a party of immigrants among the moimtains, making their journey under the 
greatest difficulties. The women and children and old men are in wagons drawn ■ 
by oxen and horses, the men and boys on foot or riding horses and mules. There | 
is courage, resolution and bravery shining in every countenance which compels 
admiration for the heroic party from all observers. Sixty years ago this painting 
was true to life! It was then a realistic portrayal of the popular method of 
going West. 

THE CEDED LAND IN DAKOTA 

The ceded land in Dakota left in unorganized territory by the admission of 
Minnesota to the Union, May 11, 185S, extended from the present boundary of 
Minnesota to the Missouri River, where it is touched by the Iowa line; up that 
stream to the mouth of the White Earth River and thence north to the inter- 
national boundary, and this tract became attached to Nebraska until the creation 
of Dakota in 186 1. J 

224 f 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 225 

THE UPPER MISSOURI RIVER TOVVNSITE COMPANY YANKTON FOUNDED 

111 February, 1858, the Upper Missouri Land Company was organized for 
the purpose of taking possession of townsites on the Missouri River, by Capt. 
John B. S. Todd and associates, including D. M. Frost, Louis H. Kennerly, 
Edward Atkinson, A. W. Hubbard, J. K. Cook, Dr. S. P. Yeomans, and Enos 
Stutsman, secretary. 

The treaty with the Yanktons of April 19, 1858, ratified March 9th and pro- 
claimed March 31, 1859, as described in Chapter XIV, was made possible by the 
activity and influence of this company among the Indians as well as at Wash- 
ington. Members of the committee in charge of the treaty, were Charles F. 
Picotte — of whom special mention has been made — William P. Lyman, Zephyr 
Rencontre and Theophile Brughier. Picotte was granted a section of land by the 
treaty which was chosen at Yankton. Other locations were made by employes 
of Frost, Todd & Co., in the interest of this townsite company, and the first 
surveys were made in accordance with their suggestions. A like grant was made 
to Rencontre, half a section to Paul Dorain and quarter sections to certain half 
breeds. 

THE FIRST CABIN HOME 

Aware of the purpose of the Missouri Land Company to gain possession of 
the townsite at Yankton, C. J. Holman, his father, W. P. Holman, Johnson 
Burritt, Gilbert Bowe, Harry Narvea, Stephen Saunders and others, came to 
Yankton in March, 1858, and built the Holman cabin, which was abandoned 
after two attacks by the Indians, upon the advice of the military authority; no 
treaty ceding the Indian lands having been negotiated at that time. 

This party was supported by Charles F. Booge, John H. Charles, Billis 
Roberts, Benjamin Stafford and others, of Sioux City, Iowa. The Holman 
cabin was the first improvement made at Yankton. Early in April, 1858, George 
D. Fiske and Samuel Mortimer came to Yankton, representing Frost, Todd & 
Company, who as licensed traders, claimed the right to remain on Indian lands. 
C. J. Holman returned in May and built another cabin, and though opposed by 
both Indians and the traders, was suffered to remain. The Fiske settlement is 
recognized as that of the first white person to establish a permanent home in 
Yankton. 

The trading post was built in July, 1858, under the supervision of William 
P. Lyman, the Picotte grant was surveyed by George M. Ryall, of Sioux City, 
at that time. 

James M. Stone, running the ferry at the James River crossing, selected land 
adjoining the Picotte tract, which lay next east of the Todd tract, the original 
townsite at Yankton. 

The settlers in Yankton County in June, 1858, were George B. Fiske, Samuel 
Mortimer, William P. Lyman, Samuel Gesou, A. B. Smith, Lytle M. Griffith and 
Frank Dupuis. 

The treaty ceding the Indian lands having been negotiated in April, 1858, 
Hon. Joseph R. Hanson reached Green Island, Neb., opposite Yankton, in 
August, 1858, and began a period of watchful waiting for the opening of ceded 

Vol. I 15 



226 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

land His party consisted of Horace T. Bailey, John Patterson, Kerwin Wilson, 
Henry and Myron Balcom. The only buildings then at Yankton were the trader's 
store and the Holman cabin. 

COL. ENDS STUTSMAN 

Col. Enos Stutsman came to Yankton in 1858,. from Sioux City, where he 
was engaged in the practice of law, and became identified with the townsite com- 
pany. He was elected to the first Territorial Legislature, which met at Yankton 
in 1862, and was chairman of the council judiciary committee. At the second 
session of the Territorial Legislature he was president of the Council, and 
again president of the Council in 1864-65. In 1866 he was appointed 
agent for the United States Treasury Department and in July, 1866, visited 
Pembina in that connection. In 1867 he was elected to the House of Repre- 
sentatives in the Territorial Legislature from the Pembina district, and became 
speaker of the House. He was re-elected to the House of Representatives in the 
Legislature of 1868-69, and elected to the Council for 1872-73. He built a hotel 
at Pembina, and took an active interest in the development of the Red River 
Valley. Stutsman County, North Dakota, was named in his honor. He died at 
Pembina, January 24. 1874. 

It is a matter of record that in October, 1858, Enos Stutsman, secretary of 
the townsite company, came to Yankton with Frank Chapell and J. S. Presho. 
David Fisher, blacksmith, and Lytic M. Griffith, carpenter, came at the same 
time. Francis Dupuis had rafted from Fort Pierre the cedar logs for the traders' 
store and he was also there. 

In the fall and winter of 1858, while the ratification of the treaty with the 
Yanktons was pending, A. H. Redfield, special Indian agent, and Maj. Charles 
.S. Lovell, United States Am:y, visited all of the settlements on Indian lands in 
South Dakota, and destroyed all on unceded lands, acting under departmental 
instructions ; the Indians succeeding in driving off some from ceded land, claim- 
ing they had not consented to the treaty of 1851, at Mendota, nor to the later 
treaty. 

DOWNER T. BR.^MBLE 

Downer T. Bramble came to Yankton in the fall of 1839, from Ponca, Neb., 
and erected a store building, the first frame building at that place, 24 by 80 feet. 
In 1861, his building became the offices for the territorial government. The only 
other buildings at Yankton then were the Indian traders' store and the log house 
built by Charles F. Picotte, and the Ash Hotel ; all built of logs. Mr. Bramble 
was a member of the Council in the first Territorial Legislature, and was identi- 
fied for many years with the business interests of Dakota, as the head of the firm 
of Bramble & Miner. 

Henry C. Ash came to Yankton in 1859 and built a large hotel ; Mrs. Ash being 
the first while woman to make her home at Yankton and her daughter Julia 
(Mrs. C. H. Bates), the first white child born in the town. 



I 




JUDSON LA MOURE 

Pioneer of Union County, 1860. Legis- 
lator from Pembina County later 




COLONEL ENOS STUTSMAN 




HUGH S. UUNAI^DSON 

First legislative representa- 
tive from the Red River of the 
North, 1862. 




CHARLES E. GALPIN 

Indian trader and husband of 
Mrs. Picotte 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 227 

MOSES K. ARMSTRONG 

Moses K. Armstrong reached Yankton October 12, 1859, ^nd took an active 
part in assisting the settlers in the adjustment of their settlement claims to the 
public surveys. He was elected to the House of Representatives in the first 
Territorial Legislature, 1862, re-elected to the second Legislative Assembly, and 
was elected speaker on the resignation of Hon. Andrew J. Harlan. In the fifth 
session of the Territorial Legislature, he served as member of the Council, and 
was elected president of the Council in the sixth Legislative Assembly. From 
1871 to 1875, he was delegate to Congress from Dakota Territory, and at the 
request of Col. Clement A. Lounsberry of the Bismarck Tribune, introduced a 
bill for the division of Dakota, and for a division of the Pembina land district, 
creating the land offices at Fargo and Bismarck. Similar bills were introduced 
in the Senate at Mr. Lounsberry's request. 

THE FIRST SURVEYS IN DAKOTA ' 

The surveys in the colonies were of tracts in irregular form, excepting in 
Georgia, where in 1733, eleven townships, of 20,000 acres each, were surveyed 
into lots of fifty acres. 

The new surveys gave townships of thirty-six sections, each one mile square, 
containing 640 acres, or quarter sections of 160 acres. 

The system of surveys of public lands in vogue throughout the United States, 
was adopted May 7, 1784, by Congress, upon a report by a committee of which 
Thomas Jefferson was chairman. The origin of the system is not known, beyond 
the facts reported by the committee. 

In the Government Building at the World's Fair of 1893, in Chicago, there 
was exhibited the original standard surveyor's chain, authorized by Act of Con- 
gress, May 18, 1797, for exectiting surveys of Government lands. The chain 
was made by David Rittenhouse, of Philadelphia, in 1797, and was still in the 
same hardwood box in which it was sent out by the manufacturer. 

The first Dakota surveys were near Sioux City, Iowa, the boundary being 
Dig Sioux River for 70 miles above its mouth. Townships were there laid 
out in i860 by John Ball, and subdivided in 1861, by Cortez Fes.senden, lines 
being extended from older Iowa surveys of 1853. Snow and Hutton ran the 
straight Dakota-Minnesota boundary in 1859. 

The exterior lines of eighty townships in Dakota were run on the lands in 
the Big Sioux region ceded in 1851, left out of Minnesota by the admission of 
that state in 1858. The subdivisions of some of these townships were made by 
Thomas J. Stone, of Sioux City, in 1859. The surveying party which made the 
survey of 1859, came overland from Dubuque, Iowa. Thomas C. Powers, after- 
wards United States senator from Montana, and identified with the steamboat 
interests on the Missouir River, notably of the "Black P Line," was one of this 
party : also William Miner, identified for many years with Bramble & Miner at 
Yankton, in general trade. 

The township lines were run at Sioux Falls by W. J. Neely in June, 1859. 
and some of the section lines by John K. Cook in September, 1859. Cortez 
Fessenden and Moses K. Armstrong, in 1864, ran additional township lines, and 
'^arl C. P. Meyer the section lines that year. 



228 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

The township lines were run at Flandreau, by W. J. Neely, in September, 
1859; the section lines by Richard F. Pettigrew, in September, 1870. Pettigrew 
was delegate to Congress from Dakota Territory, 1881-83, and afterwards United 
States senator from South Dakota. 

John Ball surveyed the township lines at Yankton, in September, i860, and 
the section lines in October of that year. 

The township lines were run at Vermilion, by John Ball, in October, i860, 
and the section lines by him in November of that year. 

At Elk Point the township lines were run by Ball in i860, and the section 
lines by Fessenden in 1861. 

At Springfield, the township lines were run by John Ball in October, i860, 
and the section lines by Cortez Fessenden in August, 1862. 

The township lines at Tyndall were run by Ball in October, i860, and the 
section lines by Fessenden, in August, 1862. 

At Canton, the township lines were run by Cortez Fessenden in 1862, and the 
section lines by Fessenden, Mellen and Nye, in 1863. 

At Parker, the township lines were run by Armstrong, in September, 1866, 
and the section lines by George P. Waldron, in October, 1867. 

At Pembina, the township lines were run by Armstrong, in September, 1867, 
and the section lines by him in October, 1868. 

The township lines at Wahpeton were run by M. T. Woolley, in September, 
1870, and the section lines by Horace J. Austin, in 1870. 

The township lines were run at Grand Forks by George N. Propper, in Sep- 
tember, 1870, and the section lines by George Mills, in September, 1873. 

The township lines were run at Fargo by R. J. Reeves, in October, 1870, and 
the- section lines by J. W. Blanding, in November, 1871. 

At Bismarck, the township lines were run by Charles Scott, in October, 1872, 
and the section lines by George G. Beardsley, in November, 1872. After the 
completion of the railroad as far as Bismarck, the twenty-eight townships along 
the line from Windsor Station to Steele, had their exteriors run by Gen. William 
H. H. Beadle and Charles Scott, in 1873, and the subdivisions were completed 
by these deputies, viz.. General Beadle, five townships ; Richard F. Pettigrew, 
fourteen ; Amherst W. Barber, five ; Mark Bailey, four. 

THE HOMESTEAD LAW — STORY OF THE FIRST LAND OFFICE THE FIRST LAND ENTRY 

The Homestead Law became effective May 20, 1862, after a forty years' 
battle for its enactment. It became one of the cardinal principles of the republican 
party, brought into power by the election of Abraham Lincoln in i860; success 
in part being due to the secession of the southern states in 1861. 

The surveyed lands of Dakota Territory became open to homestead entry 
on the first day of January, 1863. Land officers had been appointed for the first 
land office in the territory, at Vermilion, and many intending or actual settlers 
were eagerly awaiting the day. On the last night of the old year a group of 
friends were having a social chat at the new office, expecting a rush of business 
on the opening day. One of these was the young printer, Mahlon Gore, from 
Battle Creek, Mich., who, in i860, became a pioneer of the settlement. Be- 
fore they realized the lateness of the hour, the register said, "Here, Gore, didn't 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 229 

you say you meant to be the first man to make a homestead entry? The clock just 
struck twelve, it is New Year's Day and the Homestead Law is in force, so now 
is your time if you wish to head the list." Accordingly the entry was immediately 
made, for the S. E. }4, N. E. ^ section 9 and the S. W. J4 of N. W. Ya and 
lots 3 and 5, section 10, township 92 north, range 49 west, fifth principal meridian, 
as the homestead of Mahlon Gore, and became the first land entered in Dakota, 
under the public land laws. This is the story as related to Amherst W. Barber, 
one of the early surveyors of the territory. After forty years of successful 
journalism Mr. Gore passed away in 19 16, at Orlando, Fla. 

Following Mahlon Gore's entry were those of John Guardipe, John B. Le- 
Plant, Joseph Benoit, Peter Arpan, Clammor Arpan, on January i, 1863; Frank 
Verzni, William Mathers, Benjamin Gray, January 2d; Johnson Farris and 
Martin V. Farris, January 3d ; Charles La Breche, Benjamin Guardipe, Charles 
Chaussee, January 5th ; John Brouillard, January 9th ; George Stickney, January 
13th. June 15, 1868, Joseph Rolette, of Pembina, made the first entry of public 
land in North Dakota, at the Vermilion office, and the first legal transfer of land 
in North Dakota was made — that described in Part One — of a part of this tract 
to James J. Hill, the great railroad builder, on which he established a bonded 
warehouse for shipments on the Red River in the Fort Garry (now Winnipeg) 
and Indian trade. 

Those who had settled upon public lands prior to the surveys, were allowed 
ninety days preference in which to file their claims to homestead or pre-emption 
entries. The names of only those who made entry during the first few days are 
here given. 

THE PEMBINA SETTLEMENTS THE CUSTOM HOUSE 

The settlement at Pembina mentioned in detail in previous chapters, had a 
history covering fifty years before any settlement was attempted in South Dakota. 
The surveys, excepting one tier of towns east of the Red River in i860, were not 
commenced in that region until 1867, and the land did not become subject to 
entry until 1868. 

Norman W. Kittson, referred to in Part One, in the Red River country and 
Minnesota, became identified with the Indian trade at Pembina in 1843, ^"d in 
1853 was appointed postmaster at that point. In 1855 he was elected to the 
Council in the Minnesota Legislature. The customs office was established at 
Pembina in 1851, with Charles Cavileer agent. Mr. Kittson was succeeded as 
postmaster and custom-house officer by Joseph Beaupre, of St. Cloud, Minn., 
a contractor for wood and supplies. Beaupre was succeeded at Pembina by 
James McFetridge, who was a member of the Council of the second session of 
the Territorial Legislature, 1862-63. Joseph Rolette, frequently mentioned in 
Part One, in 1847 led a raid on the British traders across the international 
boundary and burned their buildings. He was elected to the Minnesota Legisla- 
ture in 1853 and 1855. William H. Moorhead settled at Pembina in 1856. Peter 
Hayden, found at Pembina in 1S67, by Moses K. Armstrong, surveyor, claimed 
to have resided there since 1821. 



230 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

WILLIAM H. MOORHEAD, A PEMBINA SETTLER OF 1857 A STORY OF TOWNSITES — 

INDIAN TRADE AND BUFFALO HUNTING 

William H. Moorhead was born in Freeport, Armstrong County, Pa., Sep- 
tember 20, 1832; was educated in the public schools of Pittsburgh and Allegheny. 
He left Pittsburgh AprH i, 1852, arriving at St. Paul, Minn., May ist, where 
he worked at his trade of carpenter for two years. The summer of 1854 and 
the following winter he spent at Sauk Rapids, trading with the Winnebagoes, 
who were subsequently removed to Blue Earth County. Returning to St. Paul, 
he organized a company to lay out townsites in Northern Minnesota and the Red 
River Valley. These were the days of paper townsites, laid out on land secured 
at $1.25 per acre, and sold to the guileless at $2 per lot; — "just the cost of re- 
cording the instruments," in the language of the circulars, which were discussed 
in the country stores throughout the eastern states, and resulted in hundreds of 
families moving west. There were mill-sites everywhere and waterpowers with- 
out number, but no improvement of a permanent character. The company con- 
sisted of Mort Kellogg, J. K. Hofifman, Joseph Charles, E. R. Hutchinson, 
Walter J. S. Traill, a Mr. Horn, and Moorhead. All were residents of St. Paul. 
Moorhead, Hofifman and Joseph Charles were the committee to lay out the sites. 
Procuring a surveyor they went by skiff up the Mississippi to Crow Wing River, 
and then proceeded up that stream to the mouth of Leaf River, and up that 
stream to Leaf Lake. From that point they made an overland trip to Otter Tail 
Lake, a distance of four miles, and from there to the outlet, and laid out Otter 
Tail City, which became famous in the early history of Minnesota, and was the 
site of the LTnited States land office, afterwards moved to Duluth. From Otter 
Tail they went down that river forty miles,' and laid out another town, which 
was called Merriam. They nailed a tin plate to a tree and marking the name of 
the "city" thereon, proceeded to St. Paul, and having purchased provisions, 
cooking utensils, tools, etc., they returned with two loaded teams, and erected 
five log houses at the outlet of Otter Tail Lake. At "Merriam" they erected 
temporary quarters, but it being impossible to get supplies, they cached their 
outfit and never returned for the buried articles. In it was a compass worth 
$80. At Leaf City, after leaving Merriam, they met Joseph A. Wheelock, after- 
wards a noted St. Paul editor, his brother, and others, who were as destitute of 
provisions as themselves. They made their way to St. Paul, where they offered 
their shares at $100 each. They valued their property at $150,000, but as a 
matter of fact they were penniless. Moorhead traded one share to his landlord 
in St. Paul for his winter's board, but in the spring the shares were without value 
and the paper town scheme was ended. 

In the spring of 1857, Mr. Moorhead met Hon. Joseph Rolette at St. Paul, 
together with James McFetridge, who were buying goods to take back to Pem- 
bina, and they engaged him to erect their new buildings at the mouth of Pembina 
River. They left St. Paul July 7th, and arrived at the mouth of the Pembina 
River the ist of August. Moorhead completed the buildings and remained 
with Rolette as a clerk, until February, 1858, when he made a trip to St. Paul 
with a dog train, not seeing a house after he left Pembina until he reached the 
Mississippi. He left St. Paul with a loaded train March i8th and arrived at 
Pembina March 30th. the dogs drawing 450 pounds of merchandise. The trip 




JOSEPH ROLETTE 
Who entered the first public land in North Dakota. June 15, 1868 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 23i 

was a hard one, as he became snow-blind, and it was with great difficulty that 
he found the way back. 

June 8th he left Pembina on a buffalo-hunting expedition, returning in August 
with fifteen carts loaded with furs, hides and pemmican. That fall he went to 
the Lake of the Woods and Lake Rosa, to trade with the Chippewas, obtaining 
much fur, and thence to the Turtle Mountains, where he had good trade with 
Indians and half-bloods. The same was true at Devils Lake and where Minofc 
now stands, where he remained during most of the winter. In the spring of 
1859, he went to St. Paul with twenty-five cart-loads of robes and furs which 
he exchanged for goods, loading his carts in return for Pembina. He made 
several trips of that kind, with unvarying profit, until the spring of 1861, when 
he was compelled to remain in the garret of his house twenty-two days by the 
high water of that spring. The water was then five feet higher than it was during 
the season of high water in 1882, the "spring rise"' remembered by many of the 
settlers of that time. 

After the water went down, Moorhead moved to Walhalla, where he engaged 
in trade with the Indians. He was scarcely nicely located before the Indian war 
broke out, resulting in the Minnesota massacre of 1862. The Indians were on 
good terms with Moorhead as he was at their treaty, on the plains of Nelson 
County, in Northern Dakota, when the tribes of Sioux, Creeks, Chippewas and 
Assiniboines, who for years had been at enmity, always hanging on each other's 
trail, murdering the women and children of the hostile tribes, met, and buried 
the hatchet, smoked the pipe of peace, and thereafter dwelt together in harmony ; 
but, as they expected him to sell them ammunition, and not liking their attitude 
because he refused, he moved to Devil's Lake, where he remained during the 
summer and winter of 1862. There were then about one hundred families of 
half-bloods and Indians at the lake. 

In the spring of 1862 Moorhead returned to Pembina Mountains, and about 
the first of May the band of Little Crow, embracing Little Six, Medicine Bottle 
and others, about one thousand strong, pitched their tepees around his place. 
Among them, as a prisoner, was the son of William IMyrick, about eight years of 
age, who was ransomed by Frank Gingras for one sack of pemmican. His 
father had been killed by the Indians and robbed of his possessions. The Indians 
left for the plains as usual in June, when Mr. Moorhead made his spring trip to 
St. Paul with his carts, requiring forty days for the trip, and then went to the 
plains on a buffalo hunt. That fall he married Lizzie Rivier, and made his wed- 
ding tour to Mouse River, leaving November loth with five carts and one travois. 
They got lost in a snow storm, and it took seventeen days to make the trip. 
Moorhead built a house after his arrival at a point lyi miles from where 
Towner is now located. He remained there during the winter, trading with the 
Sioux, and found among the Indians a boy ten years old. who had been .so long 
among them that he had forgotten his name and could not talk much English. 
All he could make known was that his parents lived on a hill in Minnesota. The 
lad was never able to learn who his parents were or what was their name. 

The buffalo were very scarce during the spring of 1863, and as a result many 
families suffered with hunger. Many of the inhabitants of the plains had to 
boil their raw hides and harness to keep from starving. Moorhead had 250 
tongues of buffalo, nicely dried, which he had saved for Governor Ramsey of 



232 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Minnesota, Jesse Ramsey, and other friends in St. Paul, but he gave them to the 
starving ones. 

April loth the hunters started for the mountains, leaving jNIoorhead and 
family with about eight pounds of pemmican, to follow. They rejoiced when 
able to kill a badger on their way, but after traveling about six miles farther, 
they overtook their party. Every pot was boiling with a piece of fat buffalo. 
They had encountered a herd of buffalo and had killed 300. The stale pemmican 
was thrown away and the party remained three days, living on the fat of the 
land. For eighteen days they were not out of the sight of buffalo, while pursuing 
their way to the mountains. 

MOORHEAD, LAMOURE AND OTHERS — DATE OF LAND ENTRIES 

Hon. Judson LaMoure made the second pre-emption entry in North Dakota, 
December 19, 1870. At the same time William H. Moorhead, Charles Bottineau 
and fourteen others, made entry, and during the next eleven days, eleven more, 
making twenty-eight entries of public lands, and all about Pembina, prior to 
January i, 1871. 

Outside the Selkirk and Pembina settlements, Lewis Lewiston built a home 
where Moorhead is situated, in i860, and raised ICX) acres of oats that year. 
Moorhead was then known as Burbank Station, on the stage line extended from 
St. Cloud, Minn., to Fort Abercrombie and thence to Georgetown, in 1859. 
Walter Hanna broke one acre in 1858. Richard Banning raised one acre of 
potatoes in i860. 

Clay County, ^linn., was then known as Breckenridge, and Wilkin as Toombs 
County, and settlements were progressing well in the Red River Valley until 
interrupted by the Indian war of 1862. 

JOSEPH ROLETTE AND THE MINNESOTA CAPITAL BILL 

"Jolly" Joe Rolette was one of the early characters in Dakota whom the City of 
St. Paul, Minn., has embalmed in its history as one of its saviors. 

Rolette was a trader without method and with little idea of the value of money, 
and, if the whole truth were to be told, it would appear that the opposition traders 
sent him to the Legislature in order to take him away from his business, and leave 
the trade open to them without his competition, which was entirely too sharp. His 
career in the Legislature and the fact that the bill removing the capital from 
St. Paul to St. Peter was disposed of by him, while a member of the Legislature, 
excites the inquiry as to how it happened. 

One who was present in those old times, says drinking and carousing was not 
an uncommon thing at the capital ; indeed, a jug of intoxicating liquor was placed 
in the hall of the House of Representatives, and a decanter set on the speaker's 
desk for the use of the members. Interested parties left Rolette — who as a mem- 
ber of the committee had the bill removing the capital to St. Peter in charge — in 
a room in the Merchants Hotel, and provided sufficient entertainment to keep him 
jolly and forgetful, until the Legislature adjourned. 

The bill was introduced in and passed the Council and had also passed the 
House of Representatives and was in the hands of Rolette, chairman of the Com- 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 233 

mittee on Enrolled Bills. A resolution was offered, directing Rolette to report the 
bill. A call of the House was moved. Rolette sat in his room at the Merchants 
Hotel, and the members under a call of the House 123 hours without a recess. 
They then adjourned, but on assembling Friday, the president, Hon. John B. 
Brisbin, ruled that the call was still pending, and again on Saturday, with the same 
result. Finally, late the last night of the session the call was dispensed with, and 
the committee reported Rolette still absent, and their inability to report a correct 
copy of the bill in his possession, and they were compelled to adjourn without 
the bill having been signed by the proper officers. 

At that time Pembina was in a legislative district, embracing all of North 
Dakota east of the Missouri River, and much of Northern Minnesota. ]VVhen the 
first Legislature met in Minnesota, it was in the Minneapolis legislative district, 
and when the first session of the Dakota Legislature, in 1862, met, it was in the 
Sioux Falls legislative district 

SETTLEMENTS XEAR FARGO 

In July, 1858, Edward Griffin, Robert Davis and Walter Hanna, of Redwing, 
Minn., arrived at a point on the Red River seven miles south of what is now Fargo, 
near Fort Abercrombie, and located the Townsite of East Burlington. Fort Aber- 
crombie was built in August of that year, and two companies of soldiers were sta- 
tioned there. Griffin and party spent the winter at a townsite called Lafayette, 
near the mouth of the Sheyenne River, about eleven miles north of Fargo, where 
Charles W. Nash, Henry Brock, Edward Murphy, and Harry Myers were holding 
the townsite for St. Paul parties. Pierre Bottineau had Frank Durant and David 
Auger holding a townsite on the Dakota side called Dakota City. George W. 
Northrup, mentioned in part one as interpreter and guide on a buffalo hunt, was 
holding a nameless city one mile north of Sheyenne, also on the Dakota side. 
George Myers and Harry and Richard Banning were holding a townsite at Ban- 
ning's Point, one mile south of the Sheyenne; Northrup had a trapping party with 
him. There were fifteen people then connected with these several townsite claims. 

THE FIRST FLOUR MILL 

In the spring of 1859 Randolph M. Probstfield came to the locality, where he 
found Adam Stein and E. R. Hutchinson. George Emerling came with him. 
Emerling went to St. Joseph (now Walhalla) where he built the first flouring mill 
in North Dakota, excepting a small mill built by Father Belcourt at his mission. 
Stein and Hutchinson became permanent settlers at Georgetown, and Probstfield 
seven miles north of Fargo, at Oak Point. 

Probstfield was able to purchase supplies at Lafayette. Enroute to the Red 
River Valley they encountered Anson Northrup with a heavy train of wagons and 
forty-four men, moving the machinery of the steamer North Star from the upper 
Mississippi River to the Red River. Northrup sawed the timber by means of a 
whip saw, and put a steamer on the Red River in 1859, as he had contracted to do. 
He collected his bonus and left the proposition of manning it to be solved by other 
parties. 

The persons named and James Anderson, living one mile north of Fargo. 



234 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

known as "Robinson Crusoe," were practically the only settlers on the Red River 
south of Pembina at this time, March, 1859. 

THE FIRST FARMS IX THE RED RIVER VALLEY 

Georgetown was established in 1859, by James McKay for the Hudson's Bay 
Company ; a warehouse, store building, shops, etc., being erected. Robert McKen- 
zie was the first in charge. McKenzie was frozen to death returning from Pem- 
bina with supplies, and was succeeded by James Pruden, who was followed by 
Alexander Murray; Mr. Probstfield taking charge in 1864. At the time of the 
Indian outbreak in 1862, there were thirty men employed at Georgetown. Peter, 
Joseph and Adam Goodman, brothers of Mrs. Probstfield, were in 1861 settlers 
in the Red River Valley. Charles Slay ton and family came in 1859, and in 1861 
Zere B. Slayton settled one mile north of Fargo. 

In 1858 Edward Connelly came into the country with a party of twenty, 
employed by the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1859 he broke fifty acres for that 
company at Georgetown. This was the first farm opened in the Red River 
Valley. 

The origin of Dakota farming is given in Chapter IV, Part One. Indian 
farming and the first white farmer, Alexander Henry, 1801, are there men- 
tioned, but in December, 1870, there was not a bushel of wheat, oats, barley, rye 
or corn produced in North Dakota for export — none whatever, excepting, pos- 
sibly, a few bushels in the settlements about Pembina and the Hudson's Bay 
station at Georgetown. Hon. Judson LaMoure states that the only land under 
cultivation at that time, aside from a few small patch.es for gardens, was by 
Charles Bottineau, ten acres ; Charles Grant, five to eight acres ; Antoine Gingras, 
twenty to twenty-five acres ; John Dole, two or three acres ; all at Pembina. 
There were, perhaps, two acres at Abercrombie. Nier Either and Peter Sla- 
moure broke twenty acres each in 1870, which was put under cultivation in 1871, 
but in 1870 all of the land under cultivation in North Dakota for every purpose 
would not exceed one hundred acres. 

OTHERS IDENTIFIED WITH DAKOTA PRIOR TO 1861 

Francois Jeanotte was born on the Mouse River in North Dakota in 1806, his 
father a French-Canadian, his mother a Chippewa. His father, Jutras Jean- 
notte, was engaged in trade on the Mouse River at the time of the Lewis and 
Clark expedition. Previously, when on the Qui-Appelle his party was attacked 
by Gros Ventres, his son killed, and his first wife scalped and left for dead, and 
he was badly wounded. Again attacked by an Indian, he wrenched the gun 
from him and killed him. At seven years of age, his twin sister was found still 
alive, scalped, and with fourteen wounds on her body. This was on Beaver 
Creek, a tributary of the Assiniboine. Francois, at twelve years of age ( 1818), 
went to Pembina with his mother, and stayed two years at the Big Salt and Little 
Salt rivers, where the Hudson's Bay Company had a trading post. In 1820 he 
states a Chippewa war party found a trading post near Minot. 

Basil Clement arrived at Fort Pierre in 1840, at the age of sixteen, and was 
employed by the American Fur Company ; spending that winter at the mouth of 
the Grand River. Bruce Osborn was also a clerk there at that time. Clement 



EARLY HISTORY OI' NORTH DAKOTA 235 

spent the winter of 1841-42 on the Cheyenne. In 1843 h^ returned to St. Louis 
on the steamer Prairie Bird with Honore Picotte and Michael McGillivray, 
coming back Christmas Day. He spent the winter as Camp Trader at Swan 
Lake (South Dakota). The next winter he was on the Wind River (Wyoming) 
with James Bridger, a hunter, trapper and explorer at Fort Union in 1844-45, 
who gave some of the earliest information regarding the discovery of gold in the 
Black Hills. John Robinson, uncle of Jesse and Frank James, of Missouri, was 
with Bridger in 1844. The next winter Clement was on the Cheyenne River 
with Joseph Jewett, trader; the next at the mouth of Thunder Creek on the 
Moreau, the next with Frederic LeBeau, and on the death of LeBeau he had 
charge of his post. In 1848 he went to the Black Hills with Paul Narcelle, trap- 
ping and hunting. The winter of 1849-50 he was again at the Moreau. 

In 1863 he was interpreter for Gen. Alfred Sully on his expedition, later 
interpreter at Fort Randall, and was intimately associated with Dakota history 
for over sixty years. 

Paul Narcelle was a clerk at Fort Pierre, and after his trip to the Black Hills 
with Clement he moved to a ranch at the mouth of the Cheyenne River, in 1887, 
and died in 1889. 

John F. A. Sanford, son-in-law of Pierre Chouteau, Jr., member of the Amer- 
ican Fur Company, was a sub-agent of the Indians at Fort Clark in 1833. 

Charles P. Chouteau was a son of Charles P. Chouteau. Sr., member of the 
American Fur Company, changed to Charles P. Chouteau, Jr., in 1842, and in 
1854 to Charles P. Chouteau Company. His wealth was rated at $18,000,000. 

Louis Archambault was at Fort Clark in 1843, with the American Fur Com- 
pany, and in i'873 a rancher near Fort Rice. 

Louis Aagard came to Fort Pierre in 1844 and was at Fort Clark under 
Joseph des Autel, with the American Fur Company, in 1846-47, an interpreter 
for the Peace Commission at Fort Rice in 1868, and a rancher in 1873 at Aagard 
Bottoms, near Bismarck. 

Chas. C. Patineaud, interpreter at Fort Berthold, was one of the seventeen 
defenders of the post in 1863, when attacked by Indians. He came to the Mis- 
souri River some years previous to 1855, when he was in charge of a winter trad- 
ing camp on the Little Missouri. 

Simon Bellehumeur, trapper and hunter on Red River in 1804. 

Forrest Hancock, trapper on the Yellowstone in 1804, met by Lewis and Clark 
on their return in 1806. 

William D. Hodgkiss, in charge of Fort Clark 1856-59, came to the Missouri 
River prior to 1840. 

Antoine Garreau was met by Lewis and Clark at the Arikara villages in 1805, 
and by Maximillian at the Mandan villages in 1833. His daughter, Maggie, mar- 
ried Andrew Dawson, who was in charge of the American Fur Company's trade 
at Fort Clark in 1849, ^nd Fort Benton, 1856 to 1870, when he returned to Scot- 
land, leaving a daughter at Fort Berthold. 

Pierre Garreau. son of Antoine Garreau, trader at Fort Clark and Fort 
Berthold, interpreter for the Pierre Chouteau Company, died at Fort Berthold, 
1870. 

Charles Bottineau, a brother of Pierre Bottineau, who was born in North 
Dakota and died at eighty-seven years of age, in 1895. 



236 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Qiarles Bottineau was a son of Pierre Bottineau and partner witli Charles 
Grant, trader at St. Joseph. 

Charles Grant was a trader at Pembina, in 1850, and partner of Charles 
Bottineau at St. Joseph. 

John B. Bottineau of this family practiced law in Minneapolis many years 
and his daughter, Marie M. Baldwin, is a graduate of Georgetown College and 
in 1916 was employed in the Indian office at Washington. She was born in 
North Dakota and as a child roamed the prairies with her tribe. 

Antoine Gingras was an Indian trader at Pembina in 1850. He engaged 
later in farming and had sixty acres under cultivation when the Pembina Com- 
pany was organized, and was then the largest taxpayer in North Dakota. 

Reuben Lewis, brother of Meriwether Lewis, was a partner of the Missouri 
River Fur Company, 1809; in charge in 1811 of the Manuel Lisa Trading Post 
above the Gros Ventres villages. 

Peter Wilson came up the Missouri River in 1825, and later became the agent 
of the Mandan Indians. 

Francois Renville was employed by Norman W. Kittson at Pembina as mail 
carrier in 1832. 

Jean Pierre Sarpee was a member of the American Fur Company. His 
brother was an independent trader in 1832, at Fort Sarpee above Omaha. 

Peter Beauchamp, 1840, was a trader and Arikara interpreter at Fort 
Berthold for the American Fur Company at the Arikara villages and Fort Clark, 
trapping and hunting. 

Joseph Buckman was a trader and postmaster at Pembina in 1861. He was 
a member of the Dakota Legislature, and died in 1862. 

Joseph Guigon at Fort Berthold, in the employ of the American Fur 
Company. 

Joseph Gondreau, blacksmith at Fort Pierre, was in the employ of the Amer- 
ican Fur Company at Fort Clark. 

Charles Primeau, who was a clerk for the American Fur Company at Fort 
Union in 1831, had a brother who was killed by Indians at Apple Creek in 1832. 
He established a trading post above Fort Clark, which he sold to Hawley & 
Hubbell. Two years later that firm abandoned Fort Primeau and it was occu- 
pied by the American Fur Company, Gerard having charge of the post from 
1857 to 1859. He was at Fort Berthold December 25, 1863, when that post was 
attacked by Two Bears' band of Sioux, as was also Charles Malnouri, who came 
there in i860. 

In i86g Gerard became an independent fur trader, and in- 1872 a government 
interpreter, and was with Reno's command at the time of the Custer massacre, 
June 25, 1876. Later he was engaged in trade at Mandan. 

David Pease was a partner with Hawley & Hubbell at Fort Berthold, and 
agent at the Crow Indian Agency. A. C. Hawley, of the Hawley & Hubbell 
Company, was deputy United States marshal in Northern Dakota in 1873. 

Charles Primeau was interpreter at Fort Yates and died in 1897. 

Jean B. Wilke was at St. Joseph in 1847. An afifray occurred at his place in 
1861 between Sioux and Chippewa Indians, in which several were killed. 

Joseph Fisher was a teacher in the Pembina district of Minnesota Territory 
in 1850. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 237 

Father Andre Lacombe, Roman Catholic clergyman, was in the Pembina dis- 
trict, census of 1850. 

Maj.-Gen. William P. Carlin, a lieutenant in General Harney's Punitive Exj)e- 
dition of 1855, was for several years identified with North Dakota as commander 
of the military post at Fort Yates. 

Lucien Gerou came from St. Paul to Pembina in 1S56, and was in the hotel 
business at Pembina. 

Joseph Alountraille, a half-breed mail carrier, was employed by Norman W. 
Kittson at Pembina in 1856. 

John Cameron was a farmer, ten miles south of Pembina, in 1856. 

Antoine Gerard was at Pembina in 1856, employed by the Hudson's Bay 
Ciompany. He kept the stage station and ferry at Acton. 

Joseph Lemae was a custom house officer at Pembina in i860. 

Robert Lemon was a partner, in i860, of Charles Larpenteur, an independent 
trader, to whom allusion is made in Part One, and was succeeded in 1862 by 
La Barge, Harkness & Co. 

Andre Gonzziou, in the employ of the North-West Company. Killed by 
Sioux when buffalo hunting with the Mandans. 

THE PICOTTES, GALPIN, P.\RKIN, .AND GERARD 

A tribute was paid in Chapter XIV to Charles F. Picotte, son of Honore 
Picotte, and the daughter of Two Lance, and a brief sketch given of his early 
life and superior educational advantages. 

Charles E. Galpin was an employee of the American Fur Company and super- 
intended, as noted in the reference to that period in behalf of that company, the 
transfer of Fort Pierre to the military authorities of the Harney Punitive Expe- 
dition of 1855. Later he was engaged in trade at various points on the Missouri, 
in competition with the Pierre Chouteau Company. He was in opposition to 
Hawley & Hubbell — the firm consisting of A. C. Hawley, James B. Hubbell and 
Frank Bates of St. Paul — at Fort Berthold. His title of "major" was acquired 
from the fact that army officers assigned to take charge of Indian agencies were 
usually of the rank of major, and the Indian traders and military post-traders 
became majors by courtesy. Major- Galpin was distinguished for his courteous 
manners, and for his efficiency as a trader. He married the widow of Honore 
Picotte, who engaged in the Indian trade on her own account after the death of 
her husband, and continued it after the death of Major Galpin on the Cannon 
Ball River. Her daughter. Amy, now (1916) a widow, who married Henry S. 
Parkin, still manages their large interests at the Cannon Ball. 

Hon. Henry S. Parkin was associated with Jack Morrow of Omaha, Col. 
Robert Wilson and Maj. Samuel A. Dickey, post trader at Fort A. Lincoln and 
first postmaster at Bismarck, then known as Edwinton. Parkin was a member 
of the North Dakota State Senate in 1895. 

Major Galpin took an active part with his stepson, Charles F. Picotte, not 
only in securing the assent of the Indians to the Treaty of 1858, but also in the 
ransom of whites made captive during the Sioux uprising. Major Galpin died 
at Grand River in 1870. 

Charles F. Picotte was a devoted son, and his devotion, not onlv to his 



238 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

mother, but to his tribe, was appreciated by the Government. He received a 
section of land, as stated, which he selected at Yankton, and also an annuity of 
$3,000 for ten years from the United States in recognition of his valuable aid 
in negotiating the treaty. Mention has been made of the building erected by 
him associated with Moses K. Armstrong, in Yankton, used for the first terri- 
torial government building in the territory, and he was the sergeant-at-arms of 
the House of Representatives at the first session of the Dakota Legislature. It 
was due largely to his influence and that of Major and Mrs. Galpin, that the 
captives taken by the Sioux in the uprising of 1862, were returned to their homes 
unharmed. He used his fortune in the entertainment of his Indian friends, 
became dependent on his salary as an interpreter, and died at the Greenwood 
Agency. 

Joseph Picotte, nephew of Honore Picotte, was a memljer of the firm of 
Prinieau, Picotte & Boosie, independent traders, supplied by Robert Campbell 
of St. Louis. 

Frederic F. Gerard came from St. Louis to the Missouri with Honore Picotte 
in September, 1848, then nineteen years of age, was employed at Fort Pierre, and 
went to Fort Clark in the spring of 1849. He learned to speak the Arikara 
language and for many years was a reliable Arikara interpreter. In 1855 he 
accompanied Basil Clement on a hunting trip to the headwaters of the Platte 
River, bringing back a winter's supply of buft'alo meat. There were five Red 
River carts and seven men on the expedition. They found cholera prevailing 
on the Platte. After his return he went to Fort Berthold with Honore Picotte. 

IRON HEART A TRAPPER's THRILLING EXPERIENCE THE MAGIC STICK 

Iron Heart was a prominent Sioux chief taking part in the battle of New 
Ulm, an incident of the Sioux massacre of 1862, described in Chapter XIII. 
Francis de Molin, one of the earliest settlers on the Indian Trail and mail route 
from Grand Forks to Fort Totten (on which two years later William N. Roach, 
afterwards United States senator from North Dakota, carried the mail), married 
a daughter of Francis Longie, an old time Indian trader, who was at New Ulm 
at the time of the Sioux massacre of 1862. He had a narrow escape then as he 
had many other times, but in each case was. saved by the Indian relatives of his 
wife. At one time he was ordered to leave the country, but his wife's friends 
formed a bodyguard around him and so marched him to safety. An old Indian 
asked him when a prisoner, what he thought about their whipping the whites in 
the war of 1862, and pointing to a rock, he replied that when he could split that 
with his head they could whip the whites. After the war was over the old chief 
told him that what he said then was true : they could not whip the whites any 
more than they could split the rock with their heads. The life of one of Longie's 
men captured by the Indians was spared on condition that he paint himself and 
wear breech clouts, but after the first day he rejected the Indian apparel and 
told them they could kill him if they liked, but he refused to wear that kind of 
clothing. If he must die, he would die like a white man, and the Indians, 
respecting him for his bravery, adopted him after that, and defended him against 
hostile tribes. He appears to h;ive had the benefit of "second sight" and feeling, 
having for warning an involuntary rising of the hair on his scalp to meet the 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 239 

attack of the Indians when in the vicinity, although not the stirring of a leaf 
in an unusual manner betrayed their presence. It is recorded of him that while 
trapping for beaver on the Sheyenne River he became seriously alarmed by this 
phenomenon, and when he started to make his exit after a night spent in 
hiding, he found himself completely surrounded by Indians. He was taken 
prisoner — they had killed his horse — and they then held a council as to who 
should kill him, but his wife's relatives again prevailed upon them to give him 
a show, and they consented that he should be allowed to reach a hill near by 
and then get away if he could. Backwards he proceeded towards the hill, with 
his gun ready, expecting treachery, but they did not follow him. Iron Heart 
was in charge of the party. 

Iron Heart was a preacher in 1895 down on the Sisseton agency, but he used 
to tell a story of his "brave" deeds which he thought a great joke. His heart 
was bad, and in order to gain peace of mind it was necessary that somebody 
should be killed. Accordingly he got a party of young men together, and staiLed 
out to war, but he traveled a long way before he found any white settler wUh 
surroundings of a character to justify demonstrations. At length perceiving a 
woman and a child alone in a tent, they went in and demanded something to eat, 
and having received it, determined to await her husband's return and demand a 
double sacrifice, to which she retorted that he would kill them with "a stick," 
that weapon being plainly visible in his hand, as he came whistling home with a 
deer on his shoulder. Meantime one of the Indians, while they were holding a 
caucus — with the deer in anticipation — to decide who should have the coveted 
honor of doing the killing, one Indian, never having taken a scalp, being on the 
verge of tears in his anxiety, a treacherous hand pulled a trigger without consent, 
the gun snapped and he was killed by the man "with the stick," who put the 
entire party to rout. It is understood that Iron Heart did not claim that his 
name resulted from this incident. He declares he was never so badly frightened 
before, and that he was sure the man had nothing but a stick. 

The first winter de Molin was on his ranch, which is thirty-five miles from 
Fort Totten on the one side, and 100 miles from Grand Forks on the other; 
these being the nearest settlements, winter set in in November and the snow 
drifted even to the top of his house. Not having heard from him for three 
months, Maj. James McLaughlin, who was Indian agent at Fort Totten, sent an 
Indian out to find him and report. He had lost his first wife and having married 
a part-blood, he became, under the laws of the Indians and the then rulings of 
the department, one of the tribe, and entitled to draw rations from the Indian 
Department. There was a Chippewa half-blood living on the lake five miles from 
de Molin and they were short of supplies, but managed to live by borrowing 
from one another. The messenger came on snow-shoes and found them, and 
they rigged up a dog sledge and went into Fort Totten with him for supplies. 
The snow was waist deep, and dog and men were completely exhausted when 
they reached an Indian camp near the agency. After resting they went into 
headquarters, leaving their dog and sledge at the Indian camp, but when they 
returned, the next day, with their provisions, they found the Indians had killed 
their dog and had a feast on his remains the night before ; so they had to "pack" 
their provisions thirty-five miles through the deep snow on their return home. 

Senator Roach's mail carriers sometimes had to rely upon the dog sledge to 



240 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

get the mail through. On one occasion a son of Colonel Smith, a half-blood and 
a white man were coming through with the mail by dog train, and got lost in a 
blizzard. They had three dogs in their train. They had killed one for food and 
one had frozen to death. They lay in a snow bank two days and nights but 
finally reached de Molin's, staggering from exhaustion, and fell at his door. Their 
lives were saved by the provision he was able to make for them. The Indians 
were very troublesome at times and even his Indian wife feared to remain with 
him. 

In 1873, two Indians from Fort Totten killed the de Lorme family, near 
Pembina, and returned to the agency, where Major McLaughlin ordered them 
captured dead or alive. After their arrest one of them got away, and after being 
shot through the legs raised himself and defied them, but the soldiers killed him. 
The other went to Standing Rock, where he raised a war party of 400. They 
killed a stage driver, and it became very threatening for a time. 

MAJ. JOHN GARLAND 

Maj. John Garland was identified with the history of Dakota as a captain in 
the Sixth United States Infantry. He was major in the Twenty-third Michigan 
Regiment at the close of the Civil war, 1865, and had charge of the Indian ponies 
surrendered by the Sioux after the Custer massacre in 1876, which were taken 
overland to St. Paul, and sold for the benefit of the Indians. His son, John E. 
Carland, has filled the offices of United States district attorney and district judge 
of South Dakota, and later United States circuit judge. 



4 




Photos by D. F. Barry, Sujurinr, Wis. 

Sioux Warrior 



NOTED SIOUX 



Ciow King 
Jolin Grass 
Riiimin;>- Antelope 



CHAPTER XVI 
THE CONQUEST OF THE SIOUX 

CHRISTIANIZING THE DAKOTAS — AMERICAN MISSIONARY BOARD STATIONS AT LAKE 
CALHOUN LAC QUI PARLE — TRAVERSE DES SIOUX THE INITIATIVE OF CUL- 
TURE — TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE INTO THE SIOUX EAGLE HELP's VISION 

SIMON's CONVERSION — EARLY SETTLERS OF SPIRIT LAKE AFTER THE SIOUX 

MASSACRE OF 1862 CHURCH OF THE SCOUTS SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT IN 

PRISON REMOVAL OF THE SURVIVORS AND PARDONED TO DAKOTA JOSEPH 

RENVILLE, DOCTOR RIGGS AND ASSOCIATES THE PILGRIMS OF SANTEE FOUNDING 

OF THE RELIGIOUS PRESS — THE FIRST GENERAL CONFERENCE — THE SABBATH — 
MEN OF MARK AMONG THE MISSIONARIES PROPHETS AND BLACK GOWNS. 

Fling out the banner ! let it float 

Skyward and seaward, high and wide ; 
' ■ The sun, that lights its shining folds, 

The cross, on which the Saviour died. 

Fling out the banner ! angels bend 

In anxious silence o'er the sign ; 
And vainly seek to comprehend 

The wonder of the love divine. 

—Bishop G. W. Doanc. 

CHRISTIANIZING THE DAKOTAS — THE INITIATIVE OF CULTURE 

In 1834, a Dakota village of about four hundred people existed on Lake 
Calhoun, extending to Lake Harriet, now embraced within the city limits of 
Minneapolis, Minn. Here that year the Rev. Samuel W. Pond and his brother, 
Gideon H. Pond, commenced the spiritual conquest of the Dakotas. In 1835, 
they were joined by the Rev. Jedediah D. Stevens and Dr. Thomas S. William- 
son, also a medical practitioner, and Lake Calhoun became a station of the 
American Missionary Board. They immediately began a systematic study of 
the Sioux language in order to better reach the understanding of the natives, and 
by 1837, they had gathered a vocabulary of five or six hundred words, this. Dr. 
Stephen R. Riggs declared, forming the basis of the Dakota (Sioux) grammar. 
Tvvo houses were built of tamarac logs, in one of which a school was established 
with half a dozen pupils, principally mixed-blood girls. In 1836, at the request of 
the Indian trader,' Joseph Renville, a three-fourths blood Sioux (first mentioned 
on the Minnesota River in Part One), a congregation of seven members was 
organized, principally of the household of Mr. Renville, who rendered invaluable 
aid in the translation of the Bible into the Dakota language, until then a rude 

VoL I 16 

241 



242 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

spoken dialect. The Bible was translated and hymns composed or translated, 
and reduced to written form in the Dakota tongue. It was the beginning of the 
creation of the literature of a nation. 

In an upper room — lo by 12 feet — of a log house, Doctor Riggs lived and 
worked for five years. Here his first three children were bom, and here his 
grammar of the Dakota language was prepared, and the greater part of the New 
Testament translated. 

Mr. Renville had great influence over the Sioux. The members of his own 
family learned to read, and some of the ".Soldiers' Lodge" (council of warriors) 
were next to learn. 

In the lower room of the Williamson building, twenty-five .or thirty men 
and women gathered every Sunday, to whom Doctor Williamson preached and 
being a physician he was often able to contribute to their temporal welfare. 
They sang Dakota hymns composed by Mrs. Renville, and Mr. Pond prayed in 
their language. 

Mr. Renville's home at Lac qui Parle was known as Fort Renville, having 
been built for defense as well as trade with the Ojibways (Chippewas). It con- 
sisted of a store building, a reception room with a large fireplace, and a bench 
running almost around the room, on which the men sat or reclined. Mr. Ren- 
ville sat in a chair in the middle of the room, with his feet crossed under him 
like a tailor. \'erse by verse the Bible was read, Renville translating into the 
Dakota language, written by Doctor Riggs or Mr. Pond, and again read from 
the Indian language. 

Thus from week to week the work went on until the missionaries became 
entirely competent to make their own translation, which was finally completed 
in 1879. Renville died in March, 1846, at Lac qui Parle. 

In the prosecution of their work they encountered the most bitter opposition, 
which was engendered in savage breasts by ignorance and superstition, and in- 
tensified by the malice, jealousy, avarice and licentiousness of white frontier 
traders. 

Eagle Help is claimed by Doctor Riggs — from whose book, "Mary and I," 
these facts are principally obtained — to have been the first Sioux to read and 
write the Dakota language, and to have been of great help in the work of trans- 
lating the Bible. Eagle Help was not only a warrior but a prophet. After 
fasting and praying and dancing the circle dance, a vision of the enemies he 
sought to kill would come to him. In his trance or dream, the whole panorama 
— the river, lake or forest, and the Ojibways in canoes, or on the land, would 
appear before him, and the spirit he saw in his vision would say, "Up, Eagle 
Help, and kill." 

On one occasion having had a vision. Eagle Help got up a war party of a 
score of young warriors, who fasted and feasted, decked themselves in hostile 
array, danced the "No Flight Dance," listened to real war stories by the old men, 
and went off to war, first killing two Mission cows. When they returned, after 
many days, without having seen an enemy they blamed the missionaries for 
Eagle Help's false vision. 

Jean N. Nicollet and Lieut. John C. Fremont visited the camp soon afterward 
C1839), and induced the Indians to pay for the cows. Eagle Help accounted for 



» 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 243 

his failure as a war prophet by the claim that his knowledge of the Christian 
religion had destroyed his powers. 

The treaty of 1837, providing for the education of the Sioux, Doctor Riggs 
held, had proved to be a handicap rather than a help, because the traders induced 
the Indians to oppose the use of the money for that purpose and to insist upon 
its being turned over to them for general purposes ; and lest there might be a 
treaty some time that would permit the missionaries to get the money, they 
ordered the Soldiers' Lodge (Council of Warriors) to prevent the children from 
going to school. 

In the work of the missionaries the women were not only taught ordinary 
household duties, but to spin, knit and sew, and the little girls to do patchwork, 
that is, sew pieces of calico of various colors, cut in scjuares, together to form a 
quilt or counterpane for a bed. 

"Before the snows had disappeared or the ducks come back" in the spring, 
the annual hunting party would return laden with rich furs and other products 
of the chase, and the traders would then reap their harvest ; to be followed by a 
long period of distress among the Indians dependent on hunting for their 
subsistence. 

In January, 1838, a hunting party of Sioux divided while in the vicinity of 
the present site of Benson, Minn., leaving three lodges there alone, which were 
visited by Hole-in-the-Day, a Chippewa chief, accompanied by ten warriors. 
The Siou.x, although near starvation themselves, treated their guests hospitably, 
killing two dogs and giving them a feast, and in return the Chippewas arose at 
midnight and mtirdered the entire three families. In 1839, 1,000 Ojibways on a 
peaceful mission, left Fort Snelling, in two parties; one by way of the .St. 
Croix River and the other by way of Rum River, and on their return to their 
homes both parties were followed by the Sioux in retaliation for the death by 
two young Ojibways of a prominent member of the Lake Calhoun Village to 
avenge the killing of their father by the Sioux. A terrific slaughter ensued and 
as a consequence the Sioux fearing to remain at Lake Calhoun removed to the 
Minnesota River and with them the missionaries who established themselves in 
a station at Lac qui Parle now in Minnesota. 

In 1840, the rate of postage was 25 cents on letters, and although Lac-qui- 
Parle was less than two hundred miles from Fort Snelling, the nearest postoffice, 
it was sometimes from three to five months before mail could be obtained from 
there at Lac-qui-Parle. 

In 1840, when Doctor Riggs visited Fort Pierre, where there were about 
forty lodges of Tetons then encamped, he decided that the time had not yet come 
to carry the work into that region, but in later years it was transferred to 
Dakota. 

In 1841, Simon Anawangomane (the Simon Peter of the Sioux) became the 
first Dakota brave to embrace the Christian religion. A considerable number 
of women had become converted, but the braves were not willing to follow their 
lead. It was hard for Simon to give up taking human life, says Doctor Riggs, 
and still harder to give up his surplus wives ; but after three years of wrestling 
with the proposition, he yielded and led the Christian warrior band, becoming 
a bright and shining star to lead their way. He put on the white man's clothing 
and planted a field of corn and potatoes. The braves, knowing his mettle, let 



244 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

him alone, but the women and children pointed the finger of scorn at him, which 
he resisted, but the temptation of strong drink mastered him and Simon went 
back for a time to his old Indian dress and ways, but in 1854 returned to the 
church. At first he only ventured to sit on the doorsteps, then he found a seat 
in the furthermost corner, advancing by degrees to his old place, and for more 
than twenty years he took a leading part in christianizing the Sioux ; the last 
ten as a licensed exhorter. He was wounded in the battle at Wood Lake, and his 
son, who- was wounded at the same engagement, died of his wounds. 

The mission at Traverse-des-Sioux was established in 1843, by Doctor Riggs 
and associates. That year two Sioux on the way to meet the missionaries were 
killed by Ojibways sneaking in the grass, and to avenge their death their friends 
shot the horse belonging to the mission and later two oxen at intervals met a 
similar fate at their hands. 

Traverse-des-Sioux was situated twelve miles above the present City of 
Lesueur, Minn., twenty-five miles from Lac-qui-Parle. St. Paul was then a 
mere collection of grog shops, depending principally on the Indian trade. The 
enterprising Indians from the Minnesota River would go to St. Paul, buy a keg 
of whiskey, have a carousal on part of its contents, fill it up with water, and then 
go to Dakota and trade it for a horse. 

By 1848, the attitude of the Indians toward the missionaries had so changed 
that the Soldiers' Lodge was placed at their service. 

The Dakota Presbytery, organized in 1845, licensed and ordained George 
H. Pond and Robert Hopkins, ministers of the Gospel, and Rev. Moses N. 
Adams, Rev. John F. Alton and Rev. Joshua Potter came to that region for work 
among the Dakotas. Reverend Mr. Hopkins was drowned July 4th of the same 
year. In June, 1849, the Christian work was extended to Big Stone Lake. 

In 185 1, the army offices at Fort Snelling had collected a Sioux vocabulary 
of five or six hundred words. The collection of Doctor Riggs had then reached 
3,000, in two years more it had doubled, and in 1856, reached 10,000 words. 
The Dakota Dictionary when published in 1874 contained 16,000 words. 

In 1852, Doctor Williamson erected buildings at the Yellow Medicine 
Mission. 

In 1857, the mission-house at Lac-qui-Parle was burned and the station was 
moved to Hazelwood, six miles from the Yellow Medicine Agency, and there 
rebuilt. The Indians from Lac-qui-Parle followed to the same place. 

At first the Dakota children were educated in the families of the mission- 
aries, but at Hazelwood a boarding school was established, starting with twenty- 
pupils. 

EARLY SETTLERS AT SPIRIT LAKE 

In 1857, when there were about fifty settlers at and near Spirit Lake, Iowa, 
Inkpadoota, who was the leader of a hunting party of Wahpetons, visited that 
locality. Game being scarce and the party in bad humor, they made demands 
on the whites which were not readily complied with, so the Indians helped 
themselves, and were insulting to the women of nearly the whole settlement. 
Four women were carried away captive; one of whom, Mrs. Marble, was treated 
kindly, having been purchased by friendly Indians and ransomed. One slipped 
from a log on which she was required to cross a stream, and while in the water 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 245 

was shot by the Indians. Another, Mrs. Noble, was killed in Inkpadoota's camp, 
and Mrs. Abbie Gardner was returned to her family through the good offices 
of John Other-day and other Indians friendly to the mission. One of the sons 
of Inkpadoota took refuge in the Yellow IMedicine Camp and was killed in an 
effort made to capture him. The annuities having been stopped until the Indian 
murderers were surrendered, Little Crow with a hundred braves having under- 
taken to punish them, reported that he had found and fought them, kiUing a 
dozen or more, and the govemment accepted his statement as true and restored 
the suspended annuities, but little Crow's story was not believed by the friendly 
Indians. 

For twenty-seven years the work of Doctor Riggs and his associates had 
moved steadily forward, when the mission moved from Lac-qui-Parle to 
Traverse-des-Sioux and seventy-five communicants had been gathered into the 
churches. The clouds seemed lifting, the prospects brightening, when there burst 
around them that terrible cyclone of blood on the fatal i8th day of August, 
1862, when the Sioux massacre began, their churches and homes were laid in 
ashes, their members were scattered and the missionaries compelled to flee to 
St. Paul and Minneapolis. Apparently the missionary work among the Dakotas 
was doomed. 

The friendly Indians made a cache in which they buried money and valuable 
books belonging to Doctor Riggs, and the library at Hazelwood. Spirit-Walker, 
Robert Hopkins, Enos, Good Hail and Makes Himself Red, were sent after Mrs. 
Huggins, of the mission, who had been protected in the family of Spirit- 
Walker. . 

The seed sown in the hearts of some of the Indians bore fruit, not only at 
the time of the massacre, but in the prison camp, where the work of regeneration 
gained its greatest headway. During their confinement, the prison became a 
school and an interest in the Christian religion was awakened and fostered that 
later largely contributed to the civilization of the Sioux. 

THE CHURCH OF THE SCOUTS 

Hundreds of Indians were captured and imprisoned at Mankato and Fort 
Snelling, and, in their confinement, these Indian captives sent for the very mis- 
sionaries they had rejected when free. They listened eagerly to the story of 
redeeming love. .\ precious work of grace sprung up among them and hundreds 
were converted. Three hundred Indian braves were baptized in a single day 
at Mankato, and organized in the prison a Presbyterian Church, the "Church of 
the Scouts." When they were released and returned to the agencies, in 1866, 
they formed the nuclei of churches and schools and Christian communities. The 
next spring the families of the condemned prisoners were sent to Crow Creek 
Reservation, Dakota. The prisoners not executed were taken to Davenport. 
Iowa, where, at Camp McClellan, they were guarded by soldiers for the next 
three years. Then their irons were removed and later they were allowed to go 
to town and sell bows and arrows and other things of Indian make, or go to the 
country to work. About thirty per cent of the Indians died of disease during 
their confinement ; smallpox prevailing among them adding much to the losses. 
-Something over one hundred men, women and children were added to the camp, 
although not condemned. 



246 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Thirteen hundred Indians were sent to Crow Creek, Dak., in 1863, 300 of 
these passing away before June 1st and the ravages of disease continued. 

Little Six and Medicine Bottle, who were indicted for complicity in the 
massacre, were captured later, tried, convicted and hanged. 

In 1866 the surviving prisoners, among them members of the "Church of the 
.Scouts," were restored to liberty and joined their families on the Xiobrara River. 

Simon Anawangomane and Peter Bigfire were licensed to preach, and Davis 
Renville was ordained a ruling elder. 

During the campaign against the Indians the Wahpetons and Sissetons in 
the employ of the Government, formed camps at Lake Traverse and Buffalo 
Lake, known as the Scouts' Camps. These camps were within what afterwards 
became the Sisseton Reservation in North and South Dakota, and formed a 
bulwark against the roving bands of Sioux who infested the country. 

Fort Wadsworth had but recently been established, and there were a number 
of friendly Siou.x employed there. Solomon Toon-kan-shacehaya, Robert Hop- 
kins, Louis Mazawakinyanna and Daniel Renville were licensed to preach in 

1867. Louis went to Fort Wadsworth and commenced religious work there. 
Rev. George D. Crocker was post chaplain at the fort. John B. Renville and 
Dr. Thomas J. Williamson were engaged in religious work in the vicinity and 
at the fort. In 1868, they were joined by Doctor Riggs, John P. Williamson and 
Artemus Ehnamane, a native minister. John B. Renville and Peter Bigfire had 
settled at the head of Big Dry Lake, Dakota, where a camp-meeting was held in 

1868, and about sixty persons added to the native church. Another camp-meeting 
was held at Buffalo Lake. A church was organized at Long Hollow, and Solomon 
was selected to be their religious teacher. In 1869 Doctor Riggs again visited 
Fort Wadsworth. Dr. Jared W. Daniels, the new agent, was then on the ground. 
The annual camp-meeting was held at Dry Wood Lake. Doctor Daniels com- 
menced to build a dormitory and school at that point, and W. K. Morris became 
the teacher. It was then John B. Renville moved to Lac-qui-Parle to the reserva- 
tion. Daniel Renville was also there and Gabriel Renville was at the agency. 
Ascension was then the leading church with J. B. Renville pastor. Daniel Ren- 
ville was chosen pastor at Goodwill. Solomon at Long Hollow, Louis at Fort 
Wadsworth, or Kettle Lake, as then called, and Thomas Good at Buffalo Lake ; 
Louis later going to Manyason. In 1871 there were eight native church organ- 
izations in Dakota. 

Amherst W. Barber, who has rendered much valuable assistance in the prep- 
aration of this work, visited the Big Sioux River Indian settlement, in Dakota, 
in connection with his work as a United States surveyor in 1873. There was then 
a white teacher there, a handsome church, and a schoolhouse for the Indian set- 
tlers occupying comfortable log houses and lands allotted to them, and now, in 
1916, they and their children enjoy all the rights of American citizens and are 
accorded the respect due them as such. They were pardoned warriors from 
Little Crow's band. 

THE PILGRIMS OF SANTEE 

The pilgrims at Santee numbered 267, with Rev. Artemus Ehnamane and 
Rev. Titus Ichadorge, pastors. The Flandreau, or River Bend Church, num- 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 247 

bered 107 members, Joseph Grow-old-man, pastor, and the Lac-qui-Parle Church 
41 members. The Ascension Church on the reservation had 69 members with 
Rev. John B. Renville, pastor. The Dry Wood Lake Church had 42 members, 
Rev. Daniel Renville, pastor. The Long Hollow Church had 80 members, Rev. 
Solomon Toon-kan-chachaya, pastor. The Kettle Lake or Fort Wadsworth 
Church had 38 members with Rev. Louis Mazawakenyauna, stated supply, and 
a church at Yankton agency had 19 members in charge of Rev. John P. Williamson. 

FOUNDING THE RELIGIOUS PRESS 

In May, 1871, a publication known as lapi Oaye, or Word Carrier, was estab- 
lished in editorial charge of Rev. John P. Williamson. The paper was at first 
printed wholly in the Sioux language; after the first year a portion in English. 

THE FIRST GENER.AL CONFERENCE 

The first general conference was held in 1871, on the Big Sioux, where a 
number of Indians had taken homesteads, and these homesteaders in due time 
(twenty-five years) received unrestricted patents to their land and were admitted 
to all the rights carried by United States citizenship. 

The Dakota ^fission had been connected with the American Board of Com- 
missioners for Foreign ^lissions of the Presbyterian Church ; but in 1870, Rev. 
Albert L. Riggs, a Congregationalist minister, went to the Santee Agency and 
established the Santee High School, with Eli Abraham and Albert Frazier assist- 
ants. Doctor Daniels, who had built an Episcopal house of worship at the 
Sisseton Agency, having been appointed on the recommendation of the Rt. Rev. 
Bishop H. B. Whipple, resigned, and Rev. Moses N. Adams was appointed in 
his stead. 

In the month of June, 1872, when the roses on the prairie began to bloom and 
the grass took on its richest green, a conference was held at the Church of Good- 
will, Sisseton Agency, Dr. Thomas S. Williamson, then of St. Peter, Minnesota, 
and Rev. John P. Williamson of Yankton, Rev. Joseph Ward of Yankton, and 
the Pond brothers, and Rev. Albert L. Riggs and Thomas L. Riggs of Santee, 
being present ; the visiting clergymen driving from two to three hundred miles 
for the purpose. The gathering of the natives was very large. 

The following spring a treaty was made by Agent Moses N. Adams, William 
H. Forbes and James Smith, Jr., United States commissioners, by which the 
Wahpeton and Sisseton Indians released their claims to Northeastern Dakota, 
on account of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and that year a brick schoolhouse 
was dedicated at the Sisseton Agency. 

In closing an account of the conference at Yankton .'\gency in 1873, Doctor 
Riggs writes: "And hands received the sacrament which, but for a knowledge 
of this dear sacrifice, might have regarded it their chief glorv that their hands 
were stained with human blood," adding "Just as we close, in strange contrast 
with the spirit of the hour, two young Indian braves go by the window. They 
are tricked out with all manner of savage frippery, ribbons stream in the wind, 
strings of discordant sleigh-bells grace their horses' necks and herald their ap- 
pearance. Each carries a drawn sword which flashes in the sunlight, and a 
plentiful use of red ochre and eagle feathers completes the picture." 



248 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

In the winter of 1873 a mission was established for the Tetons opposite 
Fort Sully. The Indians threatened to burn the mission house, hostiles crowded 
about the place, and their camps were noisy with singing and dancing, prepar- 
ing for war. 

That year. Agent Moses N. Adams erected a building for a training school 
at the Sisseton Agency, and that winter it was used for training girls under the 
care of Air. and Mrs. Armor. Mr. and Mrs. Alorris cared for the boys in other 
quarters. There were sixteen of each. In 1874 a church was erected on the Sisse- 
ton Agency at a cost of $i,8cx), and the Dakota House at the Santee Agency 
was completed at a cost of $4,200. That year Doctor Riggs visited Fort Berthold. 
Maj. Lawrence B. Sperry was the agent. Rev. Charles L. Hall, married but a 
week previous, was ordained and sent to the Berthold Agency, and for forty 
years has been doing most excellent work for the uplift of that tribe of Indians. 

The conference at the Sisseton Agency in 1876 was welcomed by Agent Maj. 
John G. Hamilton, who has supplied information of incalculable value in the 
preparation of this history. At this meeting a Dakota IMissionary Society was 
organized, and $240 was raised for a mission to be stationed at Standing Rock. 
David Grey Cloud was selected for that work. 

A letter written by Mrs. Stanley, wife of Gen. David S. Stanley, to the New 
York Evangelist, calling attention to conditions bordering on the Missouri River, 
in 1870, served to help. 

At the Conference of 1877, Rev. John Eastman, the youngest of the native 
clergymen, took a leading part. 

The following matter prepared by Rev. R. L. Creswell in 1896, gives addi- 
tional facts in this connection : 

"There are now (1896) amongst them 19 ministers, 21 congregations, 1,280 
communicants, and 862 Sunday school scholars. They expended last year for 
missions, $1,350 and for other expenses, $2,700, in all, over four thousand dol- 
lars for church purposes. There are, also, 10 Congregational churches with 670 
communicants. These two great denominations have many schools filled with 
Dakota pupils. In 1872, at Sisseton, Dakota Territory, they organized the Dakota 
Indian Conference for the purpose of uniting more closely the Dakota churches, 
stimulating the Dakota workers and advancing our Savior's Kingdom. This 
conference meets annually and is the great event of the year for this tribe. 

"In 1875, the Native Missionary Society was organized, 'to send the gospel 
to the heathen Indians.' Under its auspices there are thirty-one Women's Mis- 
sionary societies and several Young People's bands in successful operation. They 
carry on several mission stations and collect and expend annually $1,200. In 
1880 they organized Young Men's societies, 'in order that their young men might 
grow in the love and spirit of God.' In 1885. they affiliated with the General 
Association of the Whites. Their Twenty-fifth Annual Conference was held 
September 13-16, 1895, at Mountain Head, S. D., at the northern end of the 
Coteau of the Prairies. This was the hunter's paradise in the olden time. In 
1823, 4,000 buflalo skins, besides other valuable furs, were shipped from this 
locality. It is a picturesque spot, well adapted to such a peculiar gathering. 
Two hundred and fifty delegates and 1,000 spectators were present. They 
were gathered from all the thirteen Sioux agencies. The opening exercises con- 
sisted of an address by Rev. John P. Williamson, D. D., on 'Sociology.' and the 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 249 

presentation of the 'Fundamental Points of the Gospel Message,' by the Rev. 
A. L. Riggs, D. D. Then with prayer, praise, reading of the Word, and with 
warm words of Christian greeting, the regular work of the conference was 
ushered in. The discussion of such themes as 'Is no band of the Dakotas yet 
prepared for citizenship?' 'What are the Indians to do for a living?' 'What 
may be, and what may not be done on the Sabbath?' occupied the day sessions 
of Friday and Saturday. The Flandreaus, the Sissetons and Wahpetons were 
thought to be quite well fitted for citizenship. The Indian should work for his 
living like white folks. Only works of absolute necessity and real mercy should 
be done on the Sabbath day. The Y. M. C. A. occupied the evening sessions in 
the interest of the young men. They were r.ddressed by Secretary Copeland, of 
Winnipeg, on 'Study of the Bible,' and by Dr. Charles A. Eastman, of St. Paul, 
on 'Our Bodies.' He is a trained Christian physician of their own race. Rev. 
Charles R. Crawford and Rev. John Eastman, native pastors, discussed these 
important questions, 'What is it to be a Christian and how shall a Christian 
fulfill the duties of his position.' The Dakota Presbytery and the Dakota Asso- 
ciation convened on Saturday and heard reports from all their churches and 
mission stations. Pleasant and profitable missionary gatherings for the women 
and endeavor meetings for the youth were also held. The large auditorium was 
thronged at every session, with hundreds hanging about the doors and windows, 
all intensely interested in and gravely listening to the discussions. Many took 
notes which will be repeated to smaller gatherings, and thus the whole tribe will 
be largely reached and benefited. 

"The speeches were brief, earnest, pointed. The speakers stopped at once 
when through. The Indian has not yet learned to speak against time. The sing- 
ing was sweet and soul-stirring. Hundreds of Indians, spending day after day 
in such discussions, and 200 Indian women singing gospel hymns and engaging 
in prayer and bringing their gifts to send that same glorious gospel to their 
degraded sisters elsewhere, were grand sights to see. 

THE S.^BEATH 

"The Sabbath dawned most gloriously. The picturesque bluffs arotjnd the 
church were covered with the white tepees of the Christian Dakotas. Prayer and 
praise went up in the early dawn to the Great Spirit, whom they now worship, 
'in spirit and in truth.' At li A. M. a vast audience gathered out of doors and 
the crowning services of the whole series began. Hundreds of Dakotas sitting 
in ranks on the grass listening reverently to the gospel from one of their own 
race, singing heartily in their own tongue 'All hail the power of Jesus' name,' 
and receiving joyfully the symbols of otu* Saviour's love, formed a scene never to 
be forgotten. 

"May the richest blessings of heaven rest upon the work and the workers 
among the Dakotas. Its final and complete triumph is assured." 

MEN OF MARK AMONG THE MISSIONARIES 

The Rev. John P. Williamson, D. D.. of Greenwood, S. D., was born in 1835, 
the first white babe bom at Lac-qui-Parle, Minnesota. He has taken his sainted 



250 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

father's place, has grown up in the work, speaks both languages fluently, and is 
greatly revered by all the Dakotas, who lovingly call him "John." He is the 
general superintendent of the Presbyterian work among the Dakotas. The Rev. 
A. L. Riggs, D. D., of Santee, Neb., whom the Indians called "Zitkadan Wash- 
tay" or "Good Bird," when a babe at Lac-qui-Parle, with his brother. Rev. 
Thomas L. Riggs, are men of might in the Congregational department of the 
work. They are sons of the Rev. Stephen R. Riggs, who entered the work in 
1837. Rev. John Baptiste Renville of lyakaptapte (Ascension) is the young- 
est son of the famous Joseph Renville. His is the longest pastorate in the 
Dakotas. He is an able and eloquent minister, a faithful pastor and a genial 
Christian gentleman. He is the owner of a good farm and a comfortable home 
well furnished, and is greatly beloved by both whites and Indians. 

Rev. Artemus Ehnamane (Walking Through) was a famous warrior in his 
youth. He participated in the early bitter contests of his nation with the Chip- 
pewas, danced the scalp dance on the present site of ^Minneapolis ( then a wind- 
swept prairie), was converted in the Mankato revivals of '63 and is now pastor 
of a very large native congregation. Rev. John Eastman, a young man of prom- 
ise, is a Presbyterian pastor, and Government agent for the Flandreau Band. He 
claims for his people, "every adult a member of the church and every child of 
school age in school." 

PROPHETS AND BLACK GOWNS 

In the early days of the work of the mission among the Dakotas, a new 
prophet arose in the southwest (Tavibo), known as the Nevada prophet. The 
spirit of God, so to speak, was working among the Indians of almost every 
tribe. From far distant Oregon they sent representatives to Nevada, and on 
their return they sent a mission to Gen. William Clark, of the Lewis and Clark 
Expedition, then residing at St. Louis, for his judgment on the Nevada prophet. 
The party spent a winter at St. Louis, where one of them died, the others retum- 
mg home the next spring. In answer to their Macedonian call Rev. Fr. Peter 
John DeSmet, born in Belgium in 1801, who came to the United States in 
1821, was sent to the Flatheads. Father DeSmet, mentioned in Chapter XIV as 
having charge of the education of Charles F. Picotte, left Westport, Missouri, 
April 30, 1840, with the annual expedition of the American Fur Company in the 
caravan of Capt. James Dripps on the way to Green River. At the Cheyenne 
village Father DeSmet was hailed as a minister of the Great Spirit, and as the 
chief met him, shaking his hand, he said : "Black Gown, my heart was filled with 
joy when I learned who you were. My lodge never received a visitor for whom 
I feel greater esteem. As soon as I was apprised of your coming I ordered my 
great kettle to be filled, and in your honor I commanded that my three fattest 
dogs should be served." 

Father DeSmet, at a council, stated the object of his visit, and the Indians 
assured him they would provide for the "black gown" (priest) who might be sent 
to them. When he was yet a long distance off, the Flatheads sent an escort of 
warriors to protect hmi. They claimed that in a battle with the Blackfeet, in 
which sixty of their men were engaged five days, they killed fifty Blackfeet with- 
out losing one man; that the Great Spirit knew they were going to protect his 
messenger and so gave them power over their enemies. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 251 

The trappers and traders had assembled in great numbers at the Green River 
rendezvous, where an altar was built on an elevation and surrounded with boughs 
and flowers, and mass was celebrated, a great number being present. After his 
address the Indians deliberated nearly an hour and then said, "Black Gown, the 
words of thy mouth have found their way to our hearts; they will never be for- 
gotten. Our country is open for thee. Teach us what we have to do to please 
the Great Spirit, and we will do according to your words." 

On several occasions Father DeSmet visited the Dakota Indians, and the 
same cordial greeting was given him by all the tribes, regardless of their relations 
to each other. Their souls went out to him as the visible representative of the 
Great Spirit who had the power to quiet their troubled minds when in contact 
with them. 

The story of the Shawnee prophet, an earlier Indian character, is told in a 
previous chapter in Part One and further information as to the christianizing of 
the Dakotas is related in connection with the Sioux massacre, after which the 
conquest of the Sioux was carried to Dakota soil. 

Many of the missionary establishments that have spread and multiplied 
among the Sioux are the direct outgrowth of the labors of the pioneers, both men 
and women, herein mentioned. Alfred L. Riggs, the founder of the Santee 
Mission Training School at Santee, Nebraska, passed away on April 15, 1916, 
after forty-six years of successful work in the footsteps of his father, the noted 
translator. 

From that inspiring hymn, "Onward, Christian Soldiers," written by S. Bar- 
ing-Gould (1865), the following lines are selected: 

Like a mighty army 

Moves the Church of God ; 
Brothers, we are treading 

Where the saints have trod ; 
We are not divided. 

All one Body we, 
One in hope and doctrine, 

One in charity. 
Onward. Christian soldiers. 

Marching as to war. 
With the cross of Jesus 

Going on before! 



CHAPTER XVII 
THE CONQUEST OF THE SIOUX— Continued 

THE RELIGION OF THE DAKOTA INDIANS — THE GHOST DANCE — THE PROPHET OF 

THE DELAWARES ^TAVIBO SHORT BULL KICKING BEAR — DEATH OF SITTING 

BULL — ^THE BATTLE OF WOUNDED KNEE — END OF THE GHOST DANCE CRAZE — 
EVER PRESENT FEAR OF INDIANS AMONG THE PIONEERS — WOVOKA's GOLDEN RULE 

FRONTIER HARDSHIPS THE BLIZZARD RED RIVER FLOODS THE RODMAN 

WANAMA^ER EXPEDITION. 

"Thy spirit, Independence, let me share : 
Lord of the lion heart and eagle eye. 
Thy steps I follow with my bosom bare 

Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky." 

— Tobias Smollett (1721-1771), Ode to Indcfcndcnce. 

"Hope springs eternal in the human breast." The Indians of America, no less 
than the white men of Europe, and the brown men of Asia, have had many 
prophets and messiahs, who have taught them in spiritual things. 

Among the Indian teachers, one of the most noted was the prophet of the 
Delawares, who claimed to have visions in which he received instructions from 
the Master of Life, who taught a return to the simple life of the red man as the 
only avenue to Indian happiness. His followers were required to give up all 
they had acquired from the white men and return to the fire sticks and bows and 
arrows of their fathers, when it would be possible for them to organize and drive 
away the white men who were encroaching upon them. 

The story of the Shawnee prophet has already been given in these pages. 

Born during this period of excitement another Indian prophet appeared in 
Nevada, Tavibo, said to have been the father of the Indian messiah of 1890. He 
taught the resurrection of the dead and restoration of the game and the disap- 
pearance of the whites, leaving their eiifects and improvements to be enjoyed by 
the Indians. 

To bring about these results it was taught that there must be obedience to the 
ten commandments, and in addition they must cease using intoxicating liquors 
and refrain from gambling and horse racing. The propaganda was carried on 
secretly, and it was accompanied by a dance, which was the forerunner of the 
ghost dance. Since 1871 there have been other messiahs, all teaching substan- 
tially the same thing, their highest hopes being centered on the return of the game, 
and the disappearance of the whites, when the Indian should again enter on the 
life enjoyed by their fathers. 

When Tavibo died, in 1870, he left a son, Wovoka, then fourteen years of age, 
who had been reared in the land of his father, Mason Valley, Nevada, and who 

252 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 253 

dreamed his dreams, and as he says when the sun died, meaning an ecUpse, he 
went up into heaven and saw God and all of the people who died long ago, and 
returning from his sleep he told his people what he had seen and heard, and his 
fame went out to all Indian lands, and the tribes sent their wise men to see and 
know of him. Dakota sent its representatives and the delegates declared that each 
one, though of different tribes and language, heard Wovoka in his own tongue. 
And Wovoka told them that they must not hurt anyone or do any harm to any- 
one ; that they must not fight and must always do right for it would give them 
much satisfaction; that they must not tell any lies or refuse to work for the whites 
or make any trouble for them ; that when their friends die they must not cry. 
He charged them that they must not tell the white people but that the son of God 
had returned to the earth ; that the dead were alive and there would be no more 
sickness, and everyone would be young again ; this might be in the fall or in the 
spring, he could not tell, but they must dance every six weeks, every night for 
four nights and the fifth night till morning. Then they must bathe in the river 
and go home, and when they danced they must make a feast and have food that 
everyone might eat. And he gave them some new food and some sacred paint, 
and promised that he would come to them sometime. 

And thus equipped the wise men of the tribes returned to their people to teach 
the return of the ghosts and inaugurate the ghost dance. For the ghosts were 
coming anil they were driving before them vast herds of antelope and buffalo and 
other game. 

One of the Indians who was present at the Mason Valley conference with 
Wovoka said of the meeting; 

"Heap talk all the time. Indians hear all about it everywhere, Indians come 
from long way oft' to hear him. They come from east; they make signs. All 
Indians must dance, everywhere keep on dancing. Pretty soon Big Man come. 
'He bring back all game, of every kind, the game being thick everywhere. All dead 
Indians come back and live again. They all be strong, just like young Indians 
and have fine time. When Old Man come this way then all Indians go to the 
moutains, high up away from the whites. Whites can't hurt Indians then. Then 
while Indians go way up high big flood come and all white people get drowned. 
After that water go away, then nobody but Indians everywhere, all kinds of game 
thick. Indians who don't dance, who do not believe this word, will grow little, 
just about a foot high and stay that way. Some will be turned into wood and 
will be burned in fire." 

The returning delegates brought this new religion to the Dakota Indians in the 
winter of 1889 and 1890. Sitting Bull was its chief exponent at Standing Rock. 
Kicking Bull and Big Foot were at the Sheyenne Agency and Short Bull was 
the demonstrator at the Rosebud. Short Bull had visited Wovoka; he had 
touched the hand of the Messiah ; had received from him the holy bread and the 
sacred paint and had listened to his words; he had received messages through 
him from his friends in spirit-land and had been told of their homes and their 
employments, and of the vast herds of buffalo and other game and had been 
assured that the day was soon coming when there would no longer be any whites 
to make them afraid. He told the Indians that they were living the sacred life; 
that the soldiers' guns were the only thing of which they were afraid, but these 
belonged to their father in heaven, and they should no longer fear the soldiers. 



254 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

He said: "If the soldiers surround you four deep, three of you on whom I have 
placed the holy shirt, shall sing a song which I have taught you, passing around 
them, when someone will fall dead. The others will start to run, but their horses 
will sink. The riders will jump from their horses and they will sink also. Then 
you can do to them as you desire. Now you must know this that all of the race 
will be dead, there will be only 5,000 living on earth." He urged that they should 
dance and be prepared for the time when these things should come. 

And thus they were prepared for the events of 1890. The agent at Pine 
Ridge was frantic with fear. He telegraphed every day for troops. In August, 
1890, 2,000 Indians met for the dance near Pine Ridge Agency and refused to 
give it up when ordered by the agent to stop. They leveled their guns, threaten- 
ing armed resistance to any interference. At the mere rumor of coming soldiers 
they fled to the Bad Lands, where they were joined by malcontents from other 
agencies. Short Bull at the Rosebud and Big Foot at the Sheyenne, also persisted 
in the dance. 

October 9, 1890, a party of Indians under Kicking Bear left the Sheyenne 
Agency to visit Sitting Bull. He had invited them to visit him at his camp on 
the Grand River to inaugurate the ghost dance there. The dance had begun 
at Sheyenne River in September. 

Sitting Bull's heart was bad. He had broken the pipe of peace which had 
Iiung on his cabin wall since his surrender in 1881, declaring that he wanted to 
tight, and that he wanted to die. He had ceased to visit the agency. As a young 
man he refused to live at the agencies. He had spent the summers on the plains 
and the winters in the Bad Lands, or mountains, or in the timber on the Mouse 
River. Though a medicine man rather than a warrior, he had great influence with 
the Indians, drawing them to him and wielding them and the malcontents of 
almost every tribe against the whites. 

Agent James McLaughlin, of the Standing Rock Agency, visited Sitting Bull's 
camp to induce him to return to the agency but he failed and the dance went on. 
Col. William F. Cody (Bufifalo Bill) was employed by the Indian office at Wash- 
ington to go to his camp, in the hope that he could influence him, but without 
avail. Major McLaughlin, who had succeeded much better than the other agents 
in controlling the Indians under his charge, advised against Sitting Bull's arrest 
at that time, lest it should lead to an outbreak, but his arrest had been determined 
upon by the Indian oiTice. It was known that he intended to join the malcontents 
at the Pine Ridge Agency and that he had been invited to come there for "God 
was about to appear." He had asked permission to go but had prepared to go 
without permission. So on September 14, 1890, it was determined to make the 
arrest without further delay. There were some forty Indian police available and 
two companies of military, by forced marching from Fort Yates, were placed in 
supporting distance. 

Sitting Bull's arrest was made December 15, 1890, but the police were imme- 
diately surrounded by one hundred and fifty or more of his friends on whom 
he called to rescue him. Whereupon they rushed upon the police and engaged in 
a hand-to-hand battle. One of Sitting Bull's followers shot Lieut. Bull Head, 
the officer in command of the Indian police, in the side. Bull Head turned and 
shot Sitting Bull, who was also shot at the same time by Sergt. Red Tomahawk. 
Sergt. Shave Head was also shot. Catch the Bear, of Sitting Bull's party, who 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 255 

fired the first shot, was killed by Alone Man, one of the Indian police. There 
were eight of Sitting Bull's party killed, including himself and his seventeen-year- 
old son. The Indian police lost six killed or mortally wounded. Most of Sitting 
Bull's followers joined the Indians in the Bad Lands. 

BATTLE OF WOUNDED KNEE 

December 29, under the humane and fearless work of the military officers, 
most of the Indians who fled to the Bad Lands on the approach of the military 
had been induced to return to their agencies. 

Big Foot's band and a few of Sitting Bull's Indians only remained in the 
field. Big Foot had agreed to surrender. He was ill with pneumonia, and the 
army physician had made him comfortable in his tepee. The pipe of peace hung 
on the center pole of his lodge. A white flag floated from the middle of his camp 
in token of his surrender. The women and children stood about the doors of 
the tepees, watching the soldiers in their camp, without thought of harm. The 
camps of the soldiers entirely surrounded the Indian camp. The military officers 
had demanded the surrender of the Indians' guns, in order to remove the tempta- 
tion of another 'uprising, and had promised food and clothing, and transporta- 
tion for their return to their respective agencies. A group of soldiers stood near 
the tepee of Big Foot. The Indians had been requested to come out of their tepees 
and deliver their arms. About twenty worthless pieces had been surrendered, 
while fully two hundred were known to be in their possession. A party of soldiers 
were searching the tepees for more arms. There was a growing feeling of anger 
among the Indians. Yellow Bird was circling about the camp, incessantly blow- 
ing a whistle made from an eagle bone, and urging the Indians to resist, possibly 
reminding them of the promise to Short Bull that someone should fall dead and 
the soldiers would be in their power. Presently he ceased blowing the eagle 
bone and threw a handful of dust into the air. At that moment Black Fox, a 
young Indian from the Sheyenne Agency, fired on the soldiers, who instantly 
responded with a volley at such close range that their guns almost touched the 
Indians, many of whom fell dead or wounded. Their survivors sprang to their 
assistance and a hand-to-hand struggle followed. Nearly all the Indians had 
knives, some warclubs, and many had guns hid under their blankets, prepared for 
just such an event. While the hand-to-hand struggle was going on about the 
tepee of Big Foot, the artillery opened on the Indian camp. There was the white 
puff of smoke, the roar of cannon, the shriek of shot and shell, the rattle of 
musketry, and the screams of women and children, as they fled to the prairie 
for safety, followed by volleys of musketr}', and the dash of cavalry, cutting them 
down regardless of age or sex. 

In but a few moments 200 Indians and sixty soldiers lay dead or wounded 
upon the battlefield. Big Foot lay dead in his tepee. The men were mostly killed 
about his skin covered tent, the women and children were nearly all killed in 
flight, their bodies being scattered over the prairies for a distance of two miles 
or more. After the battle a gentle snow fell, spreading a mantle of white over 
the bloody scene. Many of the Indians wounded were frozen or perished in the 
blizzard which followed. Two babes were found alive among the dead on the 
third day after the battle and were reared and educated by white officers. 



256 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

The Indian dead were buried in a single trench. The Indians built a fence 
around the grave, smearing the posts with sacred paint from the hand of the 
Messiah. Among the soldier dead were Capt. George D. Wallace and thirty-one 
of the gallant Seventh Cavalry. Lieut. Ernest A. Garlington and Lieut. Harry 
L. Hawthorne were among the wounded. 

The first troops arrived at Pine Ridge November 19, 1890. Gen. Nelson A. 
Miles was in command of the campaign. Some three thousand troops were sta- 
tioned at various points in the Indian country. Upon the first approach of the troops 
most of the Indians fled to the Bad Lands, carrying away part of the agency herd 
of cattle, and destroying their own homes and the homes of those who were not in 
sympathy with them. Under the pacific work of General Miles and his ofiicers, 
most of the Indians had been induced to return to their respective agencies, and 
in a few hours more, at most, it was expected the ghost dance uprising would be 
over without a single depredation upon the whites. 

After the battle of Wounded Knee 4,000 Indians immediately took the war- 
path. The agency was attacked and serious loss was likely to result both to the 
whites and to the Indians, but wiser counsels prevailed and on January 12, 1891, 
the hostiles surrendered to General Miles and the ghost dance war was over. The 
Indians gave up their arms and returned to their agencies. Kicking Bear and 
Short Bull voluntarily surrendered and were sent to Camp Sheridan, until all fear 
of trouble was over. 

There was nothing in the teachings of Wovoka that necessarily led to war. 
"Do right always and do no harm to any one" was the golden rule laid down by 
him, and it is quite equal to that of Jesus, "Do unto others as you would be done 
by," or the older rule of the Chinese teacher, "Do not unto others that which 
you would not have them do unto you." The Indians were doing no harm in 
their dances. True, they were expecting much and hoping for it soon, but when 
the spring time passed and the summer faded and the chilly blasts of autumn 
were again upon them and the ghosts and the game came not, their good sense 
would have returned and the excitement would have died out as the fires lighted 
under the inspiration of a former Messiah flickered and died. 

Had the advice of Major McLaughlin and General Miles been accepted, or 
had the matter been left entirely in their hands, there would have been no blood- 
shed. It was the frantic appeals of the agent at Pine Ridge that brought the 
military. Their coming resulted in a stampede of the Indians to the Bad Lands. 
The foolish conduct of Yellow Bird and Black Fox brought on the wholly unpre- 
meditated battle of Wounded Knee. They struck the match that kindled the 
flame of battle. 

But the surrender of January 12, 1891, came very near not being the end. 
The Indians were quiet in their homes near the agency. Their ponies, except a 
few held in camp for emergency, were grazing on the buft'alo-grass-covered plains 
near by. There was activity in the military camp. The Indian sentinels signaled 
their chief and the Indian camp was in turmoil. There was instant preparation 
for battle and for fight. "Boots and saddles" and the "assembly" sounded in the 
military camp and cavalry and infantry moved into place for the march. General 
Miles had sent a messenger to the Indians to assure them, but still they were 
afraid, and the rumor flew that all of the women and children were to be mas- 
sacred, as those were who were at Wounded Knee. A single shot from foolish 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTx\ 257 

Indian or careless soldier there, would have added another bloody page. But 
there was none. The troops took up their line of march and the Indian country 
was again without soldiers to make the red men afraid. 

In the hearts of the Indian the principles taught by Wovoka live. The hope 
that the dead and the game may return, no longer exists, at least they are not 
expected in the spring, nor when the prairie chicken begins to fly, nor when the 
berries are ripe in autumn. The pipe of peace hangs on the cabin wall, and 
emblazoned on their hearts is the motto: "Do not fight. Do right always and do 
no harm to anyone." Hungry sometimes. But they are learning that the Great 
Spirit will listen to the music of the plow and the hoe and supply their wants, 
and they know that the sunshine and grass never fail, and that the cattle can take 
the place of the buffalo. 

FRONTIER HARDSHIPS 

The hardships of frontier days were many. There was the constant dread 
of Indian attack, and the knowledge that the apparently friendly Indian was 
bound by the regulations of his tribe; that the soldier's lodge, or warriors in 
council, governed. There was no certain protection unless backed by force and 
a will to direct it. 

There was lack of food for weeks and months at a time and lack of proper 
clothing. There was danger from wild animals and from storms. In the Red 
River Valley after the grasshopper raid of 1818 the country was left barren of 
seed, and Selkirk sent an expedition overland to Prairie du Chien to obtain a sup- 
ply at an expense of some six thousand dollars. The expedition left Prairie du 
Chien April 15, 1820, with three Mackinaws loaded with 200 bushels of wheat, 
100 bushels of oats and 30 bushels of peas. They passed up the Mississippi 
River to the Minnesota, up the Minnesota to Big Stone Lake, and then by means 
of rollers under their boats made a portage of 1J/2 miles into Lake Traverse, then 
into the Bois de Sioux and thence into the Red River, arriving at Pembina June 
3d. all of the way from Prairie du Chien by water excepting iy'2 miles. Only 
that difference between the waters emptying into the Gulf of Mexico and those 
wending their way to Hudson Bay. There were five weeks in 1852 when there 
was uninterrupted canoe communication between the Red River and the Minne- 
sota, and boats actually made the trip from Pembina to St. Paul. 

As to the conditions that year at Pembina we have the testimony of Charles 
Cavileer. the collector at Pembina. There were no herds of lowing kine and no 
fields of waving grain. There was the trader's store at Pembina, the United 
States Customs Office and some seven buildings pertaining to the trading post. 
There were several half-breed families in the vicinity. 

Cavileer and a companion were in the cock-loft of the custom house where 
they were confined during the flood, excepting as they got out in boats. Cavileer 
said: "In this loft with one companion I spent over five weeks surrounded by 
water over five feet deep, extending from the River O'Maris to the Minnesota 
Ridge. There was thirty miles of open sea. One night it blew a furious gale. 
The waves rolled over the roof and every moment we expected the frail build- 
ing to go over, but we were saved by being in the lee of the Kittson buildings. 
There were seven of these arranged in an L shape made of heavy oak logs. Sotne- 



\ 



258 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

times we went visiting, returning in our canoes the visits of the fair maidens to 
our bachelor quarters, a'nd sometimes we went hunting ducks and geese by rowing 
around among the timber, and had much success in hunting duck eggs among the 
driftwood. Notwithstanding the flood, we hterally feasted on the fat of the 
land." Cavileer insisted that he never had so much fun in his life as he had 
during those five weeks. Conditions had changed some, however, prior to the 
latest flood of 1897, when canoeing was not so pleasant a pastime in the streets 
of some of the Red River Valley cities. There were floods also in 1828, 1861, 
1873 'ind 1882. Surveys have recently been made with a view to Government 
action toward relieving the valley from the disastrous eft'ects of these floods, 
which are not as severe, however, as they were in the early days. 

And there were blizzards, too, in those days. General Fremont speaks of one 
that came up during his explorations. The word blizzard was not used until 
after the war in connection with these storms. They were known as nor-westers. 
Rosecrans used to say "fire low, boys, give them a blizzard in the shins," when 
resisting the charge of the enemy. A shower of shot and shell might be more 
terrific to meet than a storm driving particles of ice at forty to sixty miles an 
hour, as the blizzard does, but the blizzard is bad enough. 

Fortunately these storms were not frequent and are in a great measure dis- 
appearing before the development of the country, even though callow youths 
and tenderfeet are inclined to give the name to every winter storm. There was 
a blizzard which prevailed for three days in February, 1866. In December, 1867, 
there was another. Hon. Donald Stevenson had forty-five wagons drawn by oxen 
loaded with supplies for Fort Ransom. They had left St. Cloud and had reached 
their destination and were on their return trip. Stevenson followed them by 
stage. He was approaching Fort Abercrombie, or rather nearing the dinner sta- 
tion east of Abercrombie, when the storm came upon them. A fine mist came 
creeping over the prairie. They knew too well what was coming. Before they 
could button down the flaps on the stage the storm was upon them in all its fury. 
It was striking the driver and team fairly in the face, blinding them. It was 
with the utmost difficulty that the team could be kept facing the storm. Every 
few moments one from the stage would be obliged to get out and help remove 
the icicles which were closing the eyes of the driver. A building could not have 
been distinguished five feet ahead of the team or on either side of it. The beaten 
road was hard and by instinct the horses sprang back to that when their feet 
touched the soft snow. Finally the team stopped and refused to go any further. 
They were at the door of the dinner station. It was the third day before Mr. 
Stevenson was able to reach his train. Twenty-one of his oxen had perished. 
Several of the wagons were literally buried and five of them were left until 
spring. Several of the men had been fifty hours in the storm without food. On 
the way to the train Stevenson found two men from a Fort Ransom dog train 
carrying the mail, sitting against a tree, where they had taken refuge, frozen to 
death. A third was found unconscious in the snow. He was taken to the station 
and his life was saved, but not his fingers and toes. When Sfevenson undertook 
to relieve the dogs on their sledge one of them in his frenzy sprang, at his throat. 
There was another fearful blizzard in 1873. For three days there was no com- 
munication between St. Paul and Minneapolis. Not a soul passed between the 
two places. There were no telephones then and the telegraph wires were down 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 259 

and the wagon roads and railways were blockaded. Scores of people returning 
from market perished in the western part of Minnesota, some within ten rods 
of their homes, which they were unable to locate. 

GRASSHOPPERS AND MOSQUITOES 

In the Selkirk Colony in 1818, "in waves of silver drifting on to harvest" 
apparently, rolled the grain. But one bright day the sun was suddenly darkened, 
a cloud resting over the land, but it soon settled down and proved to be caused 
by myriads of grasshoppers. They completely destroyed every green thing. The 
trees were stripped of their leaves and the branches of the green bark. The 
fields were as barren of vegetation as though swept by flame. Along the water's 
edge by the river the grasshoppers lay in rows, where swept by the waves, 
from four to nine inches in depth. The stench from them was sickening. The 
next year they again appeared in increased numbers, having been hatched on the 
ground. Seventeen years prior to this time they had appeared in even greater 
numbers, as recorded by Captain Henry, then interested in trading at Pembina. 

.They visited the Missouri Slope in 1858 and 1873. In the Red River Valley 
in 1873 they drifted on the railroad track and were crushed on the rails to such 
an extent that it was necessary to sand the track before the trains could move. 

The mosquitoes were almost unbearable in the timber and the valleys. Maj. 
Samuel Woods speaks of them, and of the terrific thunder storms and the condi- 
tion of the prairies, in his report of his expedition to the Red River Valley. 

His expedition left Fort Snelling June 6th, and arrived at Pembina August i, 
1849. They left Pembina on their return trip August 26th, and reached Fort 
Snelling September 18, 1849. They were fifty-seven days going up and twenty- 
three returning. It rained much of the time on the way up, and on their 
arrival at Pembina there was a rise of twenty feet and the river was out of its 
banks. The teams mired, on the open prairie, and though they waited nearly four 
weeks at Pembina they were obliged to give up on account of the roads a con- 
templated trip to the Pembina Mountains. Even the thickly matted turf of the 
prairie would not support the weight of the wagons. 

On the rainy days they had the most terrific thunder storms, when the rain 
would fall in torrents and the heavens were in a flare of light and "thunder broke 
over us appallingly," wrote Major Woods. They were driven from the timber 
by the mosquitoes, and being on the high, open prairie, "the thunder broke over us 
in such smashing explosions that for two hours our position was torturing beyond 
description. Many left their tents and stood out regardless of the pelting rain, 
nor was this an idle or unreasonable apprehension, for only a few days before 
we had the thunder bolt amongst us in its dire effects, and we knew our camp 
was the most probable object if there was another stray one at leisure." Only 
a few days before the camp had been struck by lightning and Lieutenant Nelson 
had been seriously injured. 

THE RODMAN WANAMAKER EXPEDITION 

In the fall of 1914 Dr. Joseph E. Dixon headed an expedition to carry the 
United States flag and the greetings of the President to the Indian nations. The 



260 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

expedition was organized by Rodman Wanamaker, and was accompanied by 
Indian Inspector James McLaughlin and Edward W. Deming, the noted artist. 
The speeches of President Wilson and Secretary Lane were carried by phono- 
graph and were as follows : 

President Woodrow Wilson: "The Great White Father now calls you his 
'brothers,' not his 'children.' Because you have shown in your education and in 
your settled ways of life stanch, manly, worthy qualities of sound character, the 
nation is about to give you distinguished recognition through the erection of a 
monument in honor of the Indian people in the harbor of New York. The erection 
of that monument will usher in that day which Thomas Jeti'erson said he would 
rejoice to see, 'when the red men become truly one people with us, enjoying all 
the rights and privileges we do, and living in peace and plenty.' I rejoice to 
foresee that day." 

Secretary Lane of the Interior Department : "I have been chosen by the Big 
Chief in the White House to sit up and watch, to keep the wolves as far away 
from yoji as I can. You know that I stand here as the voice and with the hand 
of the great man in the White House. He loves to do justice above all things. 
He will do justice to you." 

Rodman Wanamaker, founder of the expedition : "These sacred ceremo- 
nies, begun at Fort Wadsworth, and now completed on your own Indian 
ground, will strengthen in your hearts the feeling of allegiance and loyalty to 
your country, to be eternally sealed as a covenant in the national Indian memo- 
rial, to stand forever as the pledge of a new life and peace everlasting." 

Doctor Dixon spoke in person: "The flag is more than a piece of colored 
bunting. The red stripe in its folds is symbolized by the red blood in your 
veins and mine, by the red glow in the sunset, by the red in your ceremonial 
pipe. 

"The white stripe finds a symbol in the white cloud that floats in the sky, in 
the white snow that drifts across the plains, in the purest thought that goes 
from your heart to the Great Mystery. 

"The field of blue with the white stars you may see every clear night as you 
look into the great dome above your heads. 

"It is the only flag in the world that takes the heaven and earth and man to 
symbolize. This makes out of it an eternal flag, and we ought to be eternally 
loyal to it. 

"I therefore dedicate the American flag to justice, mercy and fair play to 
the North American Indian." 

The idea of interesting the Indian in citizenship and loyalty to the flag was 
the prime object of the expedition. Many of the wards of the government had 
had no understanding previously of what the flag meant, and a large number had 
seldom seen it except when raised on their reservation. 

In order to give the red men a deeper interest in the emblem and its signifi- 
cance, two flags were carried each time a tribe was visited. One of these flags 
was the one raised at the Fort Wadsworth services. The other was presented 
for the use of the tribe. The ceremonies attending this presentation were 
always made impressive, following as nearly as possible those held in New York. 

What this flag came to mean to the Indian, after its significance had been 
explained to him, might be gathered from the fact that the Taos Pueblos in New 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 261 

Mexico voted that the flag should be preserved with two canes which were given 
to the tribe by Abraham Lincoln and which are handed down from generation to 
generation. 

Doctor Dixon explained to those he visited that the white man wished to be 
more friendly to the red man; that he wanted to treat him more as a brother 
and offer to him greater opportunities. 

Then the allegiance signed by representatives of the thirty-two tribes and 
attested by President Taft was presented for their signatures. The chiefs and 
old men of the tribes were always called on to take part in the various features 
of the rites. The signatures were both by pen and by thumb print. 

Following is the allegiance: "We, the undersigned representatives of vari- 
ous Indian tribes of the United States, through our presence and the part we 
have taken in the inauguration of this memorial to our people, renew our 
allegiance to the glorious flag of the United States, and offer our hearts to our 
country's service. We greatly appreciate the. honor and privilege extended by 
our white brothers, who have recognized us by inviting us to participate in the 
ceremonies on this historical occasion. 

"The Indian is fast losing his identity in the face of the great waves of 
Caucasian civilization which are extending to the four winds of this country, 
and we want fuller knowledge in order that we may take our places in the 
civilization which surrounds us. 

"Though a conquered race, with our right hands extended in brotherly love 
and our left hands holding the pipe of peace, we hereby bury all past ill feelings, 
and proclaim abroad to all the nations of the world our firm allegiance to this 
nation and to the Stars and Stripes, and declare that henceforth and forever in 
all walks of life and every field of endeavor we shall be as brothers, striving 
hand in hand, and will return to our people and tell them the story of this 
memorial and urge upon them their continued allegiance to our common 
country." 

The original signers of this document were : Plenty Coos, White Man Runs 
Him, Medicine Crown, Two Moons, Red Hawk, Edward Swan, Shoulderblade, 
Red Cloud, Big Mane, Drags Wolf, Little Wolf, Richard Wallace, Frank 
Schively, Louis Baker, Black Wolf, Wooden Leg, Milton Whiteman, Willis 
Rowland, John P. Young, Reuben Estes, Henry Leeds, Reginald Oshkosh, Rob- 
ert Summer Yellowtail, Many Chiefs, Chapman Schanandoah, Angus P. McDon- 
ald, Tennyson Berry. Mitchell Waukean, Peter Deanoine, Deanoine, Delos K. 
Lonewolf and Joseph Packineau. 

It is estimated that the Indian memorial which Mr. Wanamaker has started 
in New York Harbor will cost approximately one million dollars. The top will 
be a large statue of an Indian. The base will be a museum in which will be an 
art gallery replete with pictures of North American aborigines. Also animals 
of the chase, weapons and various sorts of articles used by the Indians will be 
placed there. 

It is planned to make this the most complete museum of Indian life in 
existence. Authentic books on this race will be one of the features which it will 
embrace, as well as a history, which will be preserved there in such a manner 
that if any great calamity ever befell this country these records would be left 



262 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

intact so that anyone coming after might find them and thus learn the history of 
these early Americans. 

Mr. Wanamaker first became interested in the North American Indian 
through Doctor Dixon. He explained to Doctor Dixon that he wished to do 
something for his country. The latter replied that he might well take up the 
case of the Indian. Doctor Dixon became interested in the red man seventeen 
years ago while out West on a reservation. He saw that the ideas he had gath- 
ered from books concerning the Indian were not true to life. This was the 
start of a study of them. 

Doctor Dixon is high in his praise of Mr. Wanamaker, saying he "is more 
than a philanthropist. He is a patriot in every sense of the word. He wants to 
convert the heroism of yesterday into the inspiration of today." 

The Iroquois Indians adopted Doctor Dixon into their tribe, naming him 
"Flying Sunshine," from the speed with which he traveled and the messages of 
good cheer which he brought to them. 

The expedition gathered many Indian relics, many drawings and paintings 
of Indian life and by phonograph many Indian songs and speeches. 




WILLIAM JAYXE 
First Territorial Governor. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
DAKOTA TERRITORY 

CREATION OF DAKOTA TERRITORY — STEPS LEADING UP TO THE LEGISLATION ACTIVI- 
TIES OF CAPTAIN TODD AND ASSOCIATES^THE BILL REPORTED BY THE SENATE 

COMMITTEE ON TERRITORIES PASSED AND SIGNED BY THE PRESIDENT — THE 

HOMESTEAD LAW — VETOED BY BUCHANAN — PASSED BY THE NEXT CONGRESS — 
APPROVED BY LINCOLN — THE ORGANIC ACT OF DAKOTA, APPROVED BY BUCHANAN. 

THE DAKOTA BILLS 

Bills were introduced in the Thirty-fifth Congress by Senator Graham A. 
Fitch of Indiana, and Alexander H. Stevens of Georgia, for the creation of 
Dakota Territory, but failed to receive consideration beyond reference to the 
proper committees. 

The Thirty-sixth Congress convened December 5, 1859. A short time before 
its meeting, Capt. John B. S. Todd and Gen. Daniel M. Frost, who had been in 
Washington in the interest of Dakota Territorial Organization, made urgent 
appeals to the people of Dakota to hold meetings and formulate petitions for the 
organization of the territory. 

Meetings were accordingly held at Yankton and Vermilion, November 8, 1859. 
Downer T. Bramble was president and Moses K. Armstrong secretary of the 
Yankton meeting. Gen. Daniel M. Frost of St. Louis, was present and urged a 
strong memorial to Congress. Capt. John B. S. Todd, Obed Foote and Thomas 
S. Frick were members of the committee on resolutions, George D. Fiske, James 
M. Stone and Capt. John B. S. Todd were appointed a committee to draft a 
memorial. Joseph R. Hanson, John Stanage, Henry Arend, Horace T. Bailey, 
Enos Stutsman, J. S. Presho, George Pike, Jr., Frank Chapell, Charles F. Picotte, 
Felix Le Blanc and Lytle M. Griffith were present. 

The memorial formulated and adopted at this meeting was also adopted by 
the meeting at Vermilion, — at the house of James McHenry — of which J. D. 
Denton was chairman and James McHenry secretary. Doctors Caulkins and 
Whitmers and Samuel Mortimer were appointed a committee on resolutions. The 
meeting adopted the Yankton Memorial, which was signed by 428 citizens of 
Dakota, and was presented to Congress by Capt. John B. S. Todd at its meeting 
in December. 

A bill was introduced in Congress early in December, 1859, by Senator Henry 
M. Rice, of Minnesota, but when brought up for consideration the slavery ques- 
tion being involved, the bill was tabled, and no further action was taken at that 
session. Congress adjourned June 20, i860. 

263 



264 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

A second convention was held at Yankton, January 15, 1861, in response to 
the urgent appeals of Captain Todd, who was then in Washington and another 
memorial was forwarded bearing 478 signatures, comprising practically all of 
the citizens of Dakota. 

A bill was pending in the House providing for the admission of a delegate to 
Congress under the Sioux Falls organization and for the creation of the office ' 
of surveyor-general. This bill was bitterly antagonized by Galusha A. Grow, 
who claimed that organization was no more entitled to respect than a vigilance 
committee ; at the same time stating that he was in favor of the organization of 
a territorial form of government for Dakota and that in due time a bill would be 
reported for that purpose. 

February 15, 1861, Senator James S. Green reported from the Senate Com- 
mittee on Territories, Senate Bill 562, for the creation of the Territory of Dakota; 
also the bill for the creation of the Territory of Nevada. The bill was made a 
special order for the next day. On February 26th, it was called up by Senator 
Green and passed without objection. March ist, Mr. Grow called up the bill 
in the House, moved the previous question, which was seconded and the bill 
passed without debate and without opposition: The bill was approved by Presi- 
dent James Buchanan on March 2, 1861. Its companion bill, Nevada, was passed 
and approved at the same time. The Arizona and Colorado bills were passed 
at the same session, the four, largely through the masterly management of Galusha 
A. Grow, the father of the Homestead Law. 

THE HOMESTEAD L.\W 

The agitation for the Homestead Law commenced in 1846. In the Thirty- 
sixth Congress it was introduced in the Senate by Senator Andrew Johnson of 
Tennessee, Senate Bill No. i, and carried to a successful issue by Mr. Johnson 
in the Senate and Mr. Grow in the House, January 20, i860, but was vetoed by 
President Buchanan, January 22, i860, on the theory that Congress had no 
right to give away public property. The bill was reintroduced at the second 
session of the Thirty-sixth Congress, passed in the Thirty-seventh Congress and 
approved May 20, 1862, by President Abraham Lincoln. 

Captain Todd has been mentioned frequently in previous chapters. It will 
be remembered that he resigned his commission in the United States army to 
become identified with D. M. Frost & Co., or Frost, Todd & Company, as it 
was for a time called, in the fur trade. 

Gen. Daniel Marsh Frost, a general in the Missouri State Militia and in the 
Confederate army, 1861-5, was a native of New York, appointed to the mili- 
tary academy in 1840 and commissioned a lieutenant in the United States army, 
resigning in 1853 to engage in trade. He was the head of the firm bearing his 
name, with headquarters at St. Louis, where he died, October 29, 1900. 

Next to General Frost and captain, afterwards general, John B. S. Todd, 
Dakota is indebted to Senator James S. Green and Galusha A. Grow for its 
organization as a territory. 

Senator James S. Green was born in Virginia, moved to Alabama and then 
to Missouri, where he commenced the practice of law at Canton in that state. 
He was a presidential elector on the Polk and Dallas ticket in 1844 and elected 
to the Thirtieth and Thirty-first Congresses; was charge d'aflfairs to Colombia 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 265 

in 1853 and appointed minister to Colombia, but did not present his credentials. 
He was elected to the United States Senate for the term commencing March 4, 
1855, and served to March 3, 1861. He died at St. Louis, January 19, 1870. 

Galusha A. Grow, a representative from Pennsylvania, was a native of Con- 
necticut, admitted to practice law in 1847, elected to the Thirty-second, Thirty- 
third and Thirty-fourth congresses as a free soil democrat and to the Thirty- 
fifth, Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh congresses as a republican. He was 
speaker of the House in 1857, and in the Thirty-seventh Congress. He was 
re-elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth, Fifty-fifth, Fifty-sixth and Fifty- 
seventh congresses, declining a renomination. He died March 31, 1907, at 
Scranton, Pa. The Flomestead Law was the crowning achievement of his 
political life. 

Rev. John P. Williamson, mentioned in connection with the Sioux, states 
that the word Dakota, in the Sioux language means friends or allies, the Dakota 
nation being a nation of friends; that Minnesota might be translated hazy water, 
not muddy water as held by some, nor many waters, as translated by others; 
that the Sioux name for the Missouri River was Minne-sho-she, meaning muddy 
water, and from the mouth of the Yellowstone to its confluence with the Missis- 
sippi, it justifies that name. 

Dakota Territory, as created, extended from the Red River of the north and 
the western boundary of Minnesota, to the eastern boundary of Washington and 
Oregon. It included all of Alontana and most of Idaho, embracing 350,000 
square miles, containing, according to the census of i860, a white population 
(including mixed bloods) of 2,376, of whom 1,606 were in Pembina County. 

March 3, 1863, the Territory of Idaho was created, extending from the 
twenty-seventh degree of longitude west from Washington, to the eastern boun- 
dary of Washington and Oregon, and May 26, 1864, Montana was created from 
Idaho Territory, and at the same time the Black Hills region and the greater 
part of Wyoming, including the Wind River and Big Horn countrj', was attached 
to Dakota Territory. Wyoming Territory was created July 25, 1868, and a part 
of Dakota was later attached to Nebraska, leaving a territory of approximately 
149,000 square miles. 

In Minnesota territorial days. Blue Earth County embraced nearly all of 
South Dakota. Pembina County was directly north of Blue Earth County, tak- 
ing in all of the present North Dakota, part of South Dakota, extending east to 
Rainy Lake and Lake Winnipegoosis, taking in about one-third of Minnesota 
Territory. 

In 1856 Pembina County was the Seventh Legislative District in Minnesota 
Territory and was represented by Joseph Rolette in the Council and R. Carlisle 
Burdick in the House of Representatives. 

Blue Earth County was in the Tenth Legislative District and was repre- 
sented in the Council by Charles E. Flandrau and Parsons K. Johnson, and by 
Aurelius F. de la Vergue and George A. McLeod in the House of Representa- 
tives. In 1857 P. P. Humphrey was elected to the Council, Joseph R. Brown, 
Francis R. Baasen and O. A. Thomas to the House of Representatives. In the 
Seventh District Joseph Rolette was returned to the Council ; Charles Grant and 
John B. Wilkie were elected to the House of Representatives. 

In the Minnesota Constitutional Convention, the Seventh District was rep- 
resented by James McFetridge, J. P. Wilson, J. Jerome, Xavier Cautell, Joseph 



266 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Rolette and Louis Wasseur. The Tenth District was represented by Joseph R. 
Brown, Charles E. Flandrau, Francis Baasen, William B. McMahon and J. H. 
Swan. 

The Organic Act of Dakota is as follows : 

AN ACT TO PROVIDE A TEMPORARY GOVERNMENT FOR THE TERRITORY OF DAKOTA, 
AND TO CREATE THE OFFICE OF SURVEYOR GENERAL THEREIN. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled. That all that part of the territory 
of the United States included within the following limits, namely: commencing 
at a point in the main channel of the Red River of the North, where the 
forty-ninth degree of north latitude crosses the same ; thence up the main 
channel of the same, and along the boundary of the State of Minnesota, to Big 
Stone Lake ; thence along the boundary line of the said State of Minnesota to 
the Iowa line ; thence along the boundary line of the State of Iowa to the 
point of intersection between the Big Sioux and Missouri Rivers ; thence up 
the Missouri River, and along the boundary line of the Territory of Nebraska, 
to the mouth of the Niobrara or Running ^^'ater River; thence following up 
the same, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the mouth of the 
Keha Paha or Turtle Hill River; thence up said river to the forty-third parallel 
of north latitude ; thence due west to the present boundary of the Territory of 
Washington ; thence along the boundary line of Washington Territory, to the 
forty-ninth degree of north latitude ; thence east, along said forty-ninth degree 
of north latitude, to the place of beginning, be, and the same is hereby, organ- 
ized into a temporary government, by the name of the Territory of Dakota; 
Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall be construed to impair the 
rights of person or property now pertaining to the Indians in said Territory, 
so long as such rights shall remain unextinguished by treaty between the United 
States and such Indians, or to include any territory which, by treaty with any 
Indian tribe, is not, without the consent of said tribe, to be included within the 
territorial limits or jurisdiction of any State or Territory ; but all such territory 
shall be excepted out of the boundaries and constitute no part of the Territory 
of Dakota, until said tribe shall signify their assent to the President of the 
United States to be included within the said Territory, or to affect the authority 
of the Government of the United States to make any regulations respecting 
such Indians, their lands, property, or other rights, by treaty, law, or otherwise, 
which it would have been competent for the Government to make if this act 
had never passed ; Provided, further, That nothing in this act contained shall 
be construed to inhibit the Government of the United States from dividing 
said Territory into two or more Territories, in such manner and at such times 
as Congress shall deem convenient and proper, or from attaching any portion 
thereof to any other Territory or State. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the executive power and authority 
in and over said Territory of Dakota, shall be vested in a governor, who shall 
hold his office for four years, and until his successor shall be appointed and 
qualified, unless sooner removed by the President of the United States. The 
governor shall reside within said Territory, shall be commander-in-chief of 
the militia thereof, shall perform the duties and receive the emoluments of 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 267 

superintendent of Indian affairs, and shall approve all laws passed by the 
legislative assembly before they shall take effect; he may grant pardons for 
offences against the laws of said Territory, and reprieves for oft'ences against 
the laws of the United States until the decision of the President can be made 
known thereon ; he shall commission all officers who shall be appointed to office 
under the laws of said Territory, and shall take care that the laws be faithfully 
executed. 

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That there shall be a secretary' of said 
Territory, who shall reside therein, and hold his office for four years, unless 
sooner removed by the President of the United States; he shall record and 
preserve all the laws and proceedings of the legislative assembly hereinafter 
constituted, and all the acts and proceedings of the governor, in his executive 
department; he shall transmit one copy of the laws, and one copy of the execu- 
tive proceedings, on or before the first day of December in each year, to the 
President of the United States, and, at the same time, two copies of the laws 
to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate, 
for the use of Congress ; and in case of the death, removal, or resignation, or 
other necessary absence of the governor from the Territory, the secretary shall 
have, and he is hereby authorized and required, to execute and perform all the 
powers and duties of the governor during such vacancy or necessary absence, 
or until another governor shall be duly appointed to fill such vacancy. 

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted. That the legislative power and authority 
of said Territory shall be vested in the governor and a legislative assembly. 
The legislative assembly shall consist of a council and house of representatives. 
The council shall consist of nine members, which may be increased to thirteen, 
having the qualifications of voters as hereinafter prescribed, whose term of 
service shall continue two years. The house of representatives shall consist 
of thirteen members, which may be increased to twenty-six, possessing the 
same qualifications as prescribed for members of the council, and whose term 
of service shall continue one year. An apportionment shall be made, as nearly 
equal as practicable, among the several counties or districts for the election of 
the council and house of representatives, giving to each section of the Territory 
representation in the ratio of its population, (Indians excepted) as nearly as 
may be ; and the members of the council and of the house of representatives 
shall reside in, and be inhabitants of, the district for which they may be elected, 
respectively. Previous to the first election, the governor shall cause a census 
or enumeration of the inhabitants of the several counties and districts of the 
Territory to be taken ; and the first election shall be held at such time and places, 
and be conducted in such manner, as the governor shall appoint and direct ; 
and he shall, at the same time, declare the number of the members of the 
council and house of representatives to which each of the counties or districts 
shall be entitled under this act. The number of persons authorized to be elected, 
having the highest number of votes in each of said council districts, for members 
of the council, shall be declared by the governor to be duly elected to the 
council; and the person or persons authorized to be elected having the greatest 
number of votes for the house of representatives, equal to the number to which 
each county or district shall be entitled, shall be declared by the governor to be 
elected members of the house of representatives : Provided, That in case of a 



268 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

tie between two or more persons voted for, the governor shall order a new 
election, to supply the vacancy made by such tie. And the persons thus elected 
to the legislative assembly shall meet at such place and on such day as the 
governor shall appoint ; but thereafter, the time, place, and manner of holding 
and conducting all elections by the people, and the apportioning the represen- 
tation in the several counties or districts to the council and house of repre- 
sentatives, according to the population, shall be prescribed by law, as well as 
the day of the commencement of the regular sessions of the legislative assembly: 
Provided, That no one session shall exceed the term of forty days, except the 
first, which may be extended to sixty days, but no longer. 

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That every free white male inhabitant 
of the United States above the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been 
a resident of said Territory at the time of the passage of this act, shall be 
entitled to vote at the first election, and shall be eligible to any office within 
the said Territory ; but the qualifications of voters and of holding office at all 
subsequent elections shall be such as shall be prescribed by the legislative 
assembly: Provided, That the right of suffrage and of holding office shall be 
exercised only by citizens of the United States and those who shall have 
declared on oath their intention to become such, and shall have taken an oath 
to support the Constitution of the United States. 

Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That the legislative power of the Terri- 
tory shall extend to all rightful subjects of legislation consistent with the 
Constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act; but no law 
shall be passed interfering with the primary disposal of the soil ; no tax shall 
be imposed upon the property of the United States; nor shall the lands or other 
property of non-residents be taxed higher than the lands or other property of 
residents ; nor shall any law be passed impairing the rights of private property ; 
nor shall any discrimination be made in taxing different kinds of property; 
but all property subject to taxation shall be in proportion to the value of the 
property taxed. 

Sec. 7. And be it further enacted. That all township, district, and county 
officers, not herein otherwise provided for, shall be appointed or elected, as the 
case may be, in such manner as shall be provided by the governor and legislative 
assembly of the Territory. The governor shall nominate and, by and with the 
advice and consent of the legislative council, appoint all officers not herein 
otherwise provided for; and, in the first instance, the governor alone may 
appoint all said officers, who shall hold their offices until the end of the first 
session of the legislative assembly, and shall lay off the necessary districts for 
members of the council and house of representatives, and all other officers. 

Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That no member of the legislative 
assembly shall hold or be appointed to any office which shall have been created, 
or the salary or emoluments of which shall have been increased while he was 
a member, during the term for which, he was elected, and for one year after 
the expiration of such term; and no person holding a commission or appoint- 
ment under the United States, except postmasters, shall be a member of the 
legislative assembly, or shall hold any office under the government of said 
Territory. 

Sec. 9. And be it further enacted. That the judicial power of said Territory 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 269 

shall be vested in a supreme court, district courts, probate courts, and in justices 
of the peace. The supreme court shall consist of a chief justice and two asso- 
ciate justices, any two of whom shall constitute a quorum, and who shall hold 
a term at the seat of government of said Territor}- annually, and they shall hold 
their offices during the period of four years. The said Territory shall be 
divided into three judicial districts, and a district court shall be held in each 
of said districts by one of the justices of the supreme court, at such time and 
place as may be prescribed by law ; and the said judges shall, after their appoint- 
ments, respectively, reside in the districts which shall be assigned them. The 
jurisdiction of the several courts herein provided for, both appellate and origi- 
nal, and that of the probate courts and of the justices of the peace, shall be as 
limited by law : Provided, That justices of the peace shall not have jurisdiction 
of any matter in controversy when the title or boundaries of land may be in 
dispute, or where the debt or sum claimed shall exceed one hundred dollars ; 
and the said supreme and district courts, respectively, shall possess chancery 
as well as common-law jurisdiction, and authority for redress of all wrongs 
committed against the Constitution or laws of the United States, or of the 
Territory, affecting persons or property. Each district court, or the judge 
thereof, shall appoint its clerk, who shall also be the register in chancery, and 
shall keep his office at the place where the court may be held. Writs of error, 
bills of exception, and appeals, shall be allowed in all cases from the final 
decisions of said district courts to the supreme court, under such regulations 
as may be prescribed by law; but in no case removed to the supreme court shall 
trial by jury be allowed in said court. The supreme court, or the justices 
thereof, shall appoint its own clerk, and every clerk shall hold his office at the 
pleasure of the court for which he shall have been appointed. Writs of error 
and appeals from the final decisions of said supreme court shall be allowed, 
and may be taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, in the same 
manner and under the same regulations as from the circuit courts of the United 
States, where the value of the property, or the amount in controversy, to be 
ascertained by the oath or affirmation of either party, or other competent witness, 
shall exceed one thousand dollars ; and each of the said district courts shall 
have and exercise the same jurisdiction, in all cases arising under the Consti- 
tution and laws of the United States as is vested in the circuit and district courts 
of the United States ; and the said supreme and district courts of the said 
Territory, and the respective judges thereof, shall and may grant writs of 
habeas corpus in all cases in which the same are grantable by the judges of the 
United States in the District of Columbia ; and the first six days of every term 
of said courts, or so much thereof as shall be necessary, shall be appropriated 
to the trial of causes arising under the said Constitution and laws ; and writs of 
error and appeals in all such cases shall be made to the supreme court of said 
Territory the same as in other cases. The said clerk shall receive, in all such 
cases, the same fees which the clerks of the district courts of Nebraska Territory 
. now receive for similar services. 

Sec. io. And be it further enacted, That there shall be appointed an 
attorney for said Territory, who shall continue in office for four years, unless 
sooner removed by the President, and who shall receive the same fees and 
salary as the attorney of the United States for the present Territory of Ne- 



270 EARLY HISTORY OF XORTH DAKOTA 

braska. There shall also be a marshal for the Territory appointed, who shall 
hold his office for four years, unless sooner removed by the President, and who 
shall execute all processes issuing from the said courts when exercising their 
jurisdiction as circuit and district courts of the United States; he shall perform 
the duties, be subject to the same regulations and penalties, and be entitled to 
the same fees as the marshal of the district court of the United States for the 
present Territory of Nebraska, and shall, in addition, be paid two hundred 
dollars annually as a compensation for extra services. 

Sec. II. And be it further enacted, That the governor, secretary', chief 
justice and associate justices, attorney, and marshal, shall be nominated and, by 
and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appointed by the President of 
the United States. The governor and secretary to be appointed as aforesaid 
shall, before they act as such, respectively take an oath or affirmation before 
the district judge, or some justice of the peace in the limits of said Territory 
duly authorized to administer oaths and affirmations by the laws now in force 
therein, or before the chief justice or some associate justice of the Supreme" 
Court of the United States, to support the Constitution of the United States 
and faithfully to discharge the duties of their respective offices ; which said 
oaths, when so taken, shall be certified by the person by whom the same shall 
have been taken ; and such certificates shall be received and recorded by the 
secretary among the executive proceedings ; and the chief justice and associate 
justices, and all other civil officers in said Territory, before they act as such, 
shall take a like oath or affirmation before the said governor or secretary, or 
some judge or justice of the peace of the Territory who may be duly commis- 
sioned and qualified, which said oath or affirmation shall be certified and trans- 
mitted by the person taking the same to the secretary, to be by him recorded 
as aforesaid ; and afterwards the like oath or affirmation shall be taken, certified, 
and recorded in such man[n]er and form as may be prescribed by law. The 
governor shall receive an annual salary of $1,500.00 as governor, and Si, 000.00 
as superintendent of Indian affairs; the chief justice and associate justices shall 
each receix'c an annual salary of $1,800.00; the secretary shall receive an 
annual salary of $1,800.00. The said salaries shall be paid quarter-yearly at 
the Treasury of the United States. The members of the legislative assembly 
shall be entitled to receive $3.00 each per day during their attendance at the 
session thereof, and $3.00 for every twenty miles' travel in going to and return- 
ing from the said sessions, estimated according to the nearest usually traveled 
route. There shall be appropriated annually the sum of $1,000.00, to be ex- 
pended bv the governor, to defray the contingent expenses of the Territory. 
There shall also be appropriated annually a sufficient sum, to be expended by 
the secretary of the Territory, and upon an estimate to be made by the Secretary 
of the Treasury of the United States, to defray the expenses of the legislative 
assembly, the printing of the laws, and other incidental expenses: and the secre- 
tary of the Territory shall annually account to the Secretary of the Treasury 
of the United States for the manner in which the aforesaid sum shall have been 
expended. 

Sec. 12. And be it further enacted, That the legislative assembly of the 
Territory of Dakota shall hold its first session at such time and place in said 
Territory as the governor thereof shall appoint and direct ; and at .'iaid first 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 271 

session, or as soon thereafter as they shall deem expedient, the governor and 
legislative assembly shall proceed to locate and establish the seat of government 
for said Territory at such place as they may deem eligible ; which place, how- 
ever, shall thereafter be subject to be changed by the said governor and legis- 
lative assembly. 

Sec. 13. Afid be it f Hither enacted, That a delegate to the House of Rep- 
resentatives of the United States, to serve during each Congress of the United 
States, may be elected by the voters qualified to elect members of the legislative 
assembly, who shall be entitled to the same rights and privileges as are exercised 
and enjoyed by the delegates from the several other Territories of the United 
States to the said House of Representatives. The first election shall be held 
at such time and places, and be conducted in such manner, as the governor shall 
appoint and direct ; and at all subsequent elections, the times, places, and manner 
of holding elections shall be prescribed by law. The person having the greatest 
number of votes shall be declared by the governor to be duly elected, and a 
certiiicate thereof shall be given accordingly. 

Sec. 14. \-iiid be it further enacted. That when the land in said Territory 
shall be surveyed, under the direction of the government of the United States, 
preparatory to bringing the same into market, sections numbered sixteen and 
ihirty-six in each township in said Territory shall be, and the same are hereby, 
reserved for the purpose of being applied to schools in the States hereafter 
to be erected out of the same. 

Sec. 15. And be it further enacted, That temporarily, and until otherwise 
provided by law, the governor of said Territory may define the judicial districts 
of said Territory and assign the judges who may be appointed for said Territory 
to the several districts, and also appoint the times and places for holding courts 
in the several counties or subdivisions in each of said judicial districts by 
proclamation to be issued by him ; but the legislative assembly, at their first or 
any subsequent session, may organize, alter, or modify such judicial districts, 
and assign the judges, and alter the times and places of holding the courts, as to 
them shall seem proper and convenient. 

Sec. 16. And be it further enacted, That the Constitution and all laws of 
the United States which are not locally inapplicable shall have the same force 
and efifect within the said Territory of Dakota as elsewhere within the United 
States. 

Sec. 17. And be it further enacted. That the President of the United States, 
by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall be, and he is hereby, 
authorized to appoint a surveyor-general for Dakota, who shall locate his office 
at such place as the Secretary of the Interior shall from time to time direct, 
and whose duties, powers, obligations, responsibilities, compensation, and allow- 
ances for clerk hire, office rent, fuel, and incidental expenses shall be the same 
as those of the surveyor-general of Nebraska and Kansas, under the direction 
of the Secretary of the Interior, and such instructions as he may from time to 
time deem it advisable to give him. 

Sec. 18. And be it further enacted. That so much of the public lands of the 
United States in the Territory of Dakota, west of its eastern boundary and east 
and north of the Niobrara, or Running Water River, be formed into a land 
district, to be called the Yancton district, at such time as the President may 



272 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

direct, the land office for which shall be located at such point as the President 
may direct, and shall be removed from time to time to other points within said 
district whenever, in his opinion, it may be expedient. 

Sec. 19. And be it further enacted, That the President be, and he is hereby, 
authorized to appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a regis- 
ter and receiver for said district, who shall respectively be required to reside at 
the site of said office, and who shall have the same powers, perform the same 
duties, and be entitled to the same compensation, as are or may be prescribed by 
law in relation to other land-offices of the United States. 

Sec. 20. And be it further enacted, That the river in said Territory here- 
tofore known as the "River aux Jacques," or "James River," shall hereafter be 
called the Dakota River. 

Sec. 21. And be it further enacted. That, until Congress shall otherwise 
tlirect, that portion of the Territories of Utah and Washington between the 
forty-first and forty-third degrees of north latitude, and east of the thirty-third 
meridian of longitude west from Washington, shall be, and is hereby, incorpo- 
rated into and made a part of the Territory of Nebraska. 

Approved, March 2, 1861. 

Attest: Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State. 

James Buchanan. 



PART HI 



Vol. I— I! 



CHAPTER XIX 
DAKOTA ORGANIZED 

THE GOVERNOR AND TERRITORIAL OFFICERS — CENSUf^ AND POPULATION — LEGISLA- 
TIVE APPORTIONMENT ELECTION PRECINCTS AND JUDGES OF ELECTION — THE 

JUDICIAL DISTRICTS AND ASSIGNMENT OF JUDGES RESULTS OF ELECTIONS — 

DELEGATE TO CONGRESS — MEMBERS OF FIRST LEGISLATURE THE FIRST LEGIS- 
LATIVE ASSEMBLY — THE GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE LOCATION OF THE CAPITAL — 

OLD settlers' ASSOCIATION — THE PUBLIC PRINTER A WESTERN WIFE. 

In April, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln appointed the following officers 
for the Territory of Dakota: Governor, William Jayne of Springfield, 111.; 
secretary, John Hutchinson of Minnesota; chief justice, Philemon Bliss of Ohio; 
associate justices, Lorenzo Parsons Williston of Pennsylvania and Joseph L. 
Williams of Tennessee; district attorney, William E. Gleason of Maryland; 
United States marshal, W'illiam E. Shaffer of Missouri ; surveyor-general, 
George D. Hill of Michigan. Hon. Newton Edmunds of Ypsilanti, Mich., 
who was appointed chief clerk in the surveyor-general's office, arrived in June, 
1861, and gave the required notice that under the direction of the commissioner 
of the general land office, the surveyor-general's office was directed to receive 
preemption declaratory statements of settlers until the opening of the local land 
offices, and that such statements would be received as soon as the townships were 
platted. 

The governor and United States marshal also arrived in June. The first 
official act of the governor was to appoint persons to take a census ; those so 
appointed were Henry D. Betts, Wilmot \^^ Brookings, Andrew ']. Harlan, 
Obed Foote, George M. Pinney and John D. Morse, who were designated census 
agents, as given under "Territory Proclaimed," in Chapter XI\\ 

Brookings was assigned to the Sioux Falls District, Harlan to the Brule 
Creek settlements, Foote to the Missouri River settlements, embracing Yankton, 
Pinney to the Missouri River settlements, embracing Choteau Creek, Morse to 
the Niobrara region, and Betts to the Red River. 

The population, as returned by these agents, was 2,376, of which the number 
of whites in the Red River District was 51 males and 28 females, 264 mixed- 
blood males and 260 mixed-blood females, a total of 603; but as heretofore 
stated, this census as to the Red River country was not accepted as correct, as 
the greater portion of the people were then absent on their annual buffalo hunt. 
The United States census of the previous year showed a population for this 
region of 1,606, and the census of 1850, 1,135 (correct number, 1,116). The 
number returned by Maj. Samuel Woods in 1849 ^or the Pembina region 

275 



276 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

showed 177 families, 511 males and 515 females, white and half-blood families, a 
total of 1,026. They had 600 carts, 300 oxen, 300 work horses, 150 horses for 
the chase, 1,500 horned cattle, a few hogs and no sheep (31st Congress, ist 
Session, H. Docs. 42 and 51). The census agents of 1861 gave the distribution 
of the population of the several districts as follows: Red River, 603; Brule 
Creek, 47; Point on the Big Sioux, 104; Elk Point, 61; Vermilion, 265; Bottom 
and Clay Creek, 210; Sioux Ealls, 60; Yankton, 287; Bon Homme, 163; Pease 
and Hamilton settlements, 181; Fort Randall, 210; Yankton Agency, 76; Ponca 
Agency and vicinity, 129 — total, 2,376. In South Dakota there were 25 mixed- 
bloods on the Big Sioux, 5 at Elk Point, 7 at Vermilion, 9 at Yankton, 128 at the 
Pease and Hamilton settlements, 47 at Yankton Agency, and 34 at the Ponca 
Agency, a total of 255 ; added to the 603 reported at Pembina, gave a mixed- 
blood population of 858 out of the total of 2,376. To this should be added at 
least 1,000 more, mostly mixed-bloods, not reported in the Pembina District. 

LEGISLATIVE DISTRICTS AND APPORTIONMENT OF MEMBERS 

July 29, 1861, the governor issued his proclamation dividing the territory 
into Council and Representative districts and apportioning the members to the 
several districts. 

First Council District — That portion of Dakota lying between the Big Sioux 
and Missouri rivers, bounded on the west by the range line between ranges 50 
and 51, and that portion lying west of the Red River, including the settlements 
at Pembina and St. Joseph, two councilmen. 

Second District — All that portion bounded by the Vermilion River on the 
west and on the east by the range line dividing ranges 50 and 51, two councilmen. 

Third District — All that portion bounded by the Vermilion River on the east 
and on the west by the range line dividing ranges 53 and 54, one councilman. 

Fourth District — All that portion bounded on the east by the range line 
dividing ranges 53 and 54, and on the west by the range line dividing ranges 
57 and 58, two councilmen. 

Fifth District — All that portion bounded on the east by the range line dividing 
ranges 57' and 58 and on the west by Choteau Creek, one councilmaiL 

Sixth District — All that portion bounded on the east by Choteau Creek and 
on the west by a line west of and including the Hamilton and Pease settlements 
and all that portion of Dakota Territory situated between the Missouri River and 
the Niobrara River, one councilman. 

The territory was divided into eight representative districts. To the first, 
two representatives; to the second, one; to the third (the Pembina country), 
one ; to the fourth, two ; to the fifth, two ; to the sixth, two ; to the seventh, two ; 
to the eighth, one. 

FIRST ELECTION ORDERED 

An election was ordered for September 16, 1861, for the election of members 
of the Legislature and a delegate to Congress ; and election precincts were estab- 
lished as follows : 

First Representative District — At the house of Thomas Maloney; judges of 






EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 277 

election, James Summers, William Mathews and Thomas Maloney; and at the 
hotel of Eli Wixon at Elk Point, judges, Sherman Clyde, William Frisbie and 
K. P. Romme. 

Second District — At the house of William Amida ; judges, George P. Wal- 
dron, Berne C. Fowler and John Keltz. 

Third District — At the house of Charles LeMay, Pembina; judges, James 
AIcFetridge, Hugh Donaldson and Charles LeMay. Also at the house of Bap- 
tiste Shorette (Charrette) at St. Joseph; judges, Baptiste Shorette, Charles Bot- 
tineau, Antoine Zangran. 

Fourth District — At the house of James McPIenry ; judges, A. J. Harlan, 
Ole Anderson and A. Eckles. 

Fifth District — At the house of Bligh E. Wood; judges, Ole Oleson, Bligh E. 
Wood and Ole Bottolfson. 

Sixth District (Yankton) — At the house of Frost, Todd & Co.; judges, 
Moses K. Armstrong, Frank Chapell and J. S. Presho. 

Seventh District — At Herrick's Hotel, Bon Homme; judges, Daniel Gifford, 
George M. Pinney and George Falkenberg. 

Eighth District — At the house of F. O. Pease; judges, J. V. Hamilton, Ben- 
jamin Estes and Joseph Ellis. And also at Gregory's store; judges, Charles 
Young, James Tufts and Thomas Small. 

Any free white male inhabitant of the United States, residing in the territory 
Alarch 2, 1861, when the organic act was passed, and in the precinct at the date 
of this proclamation (July 29, 1861), who was a citizen of the United States or 
had declared his intentions to become such, was entitled to vote upon subscribing 
to an oath of allegiance. 

THE JUDICIAL DISTRICTS 

July 30, 1861, the governor issued a proclamation establishing judicial dis- 
tricts as follows : All that portion of Dakota Territory bounded by the east line 
of the territory and on the west by the range line dividing ranges 53 and 54, was 
constituted the First Judicial District. All that portion of the territory bounded 
on the east by the range line between ranges 53 and 54 (dividing Yankton and 
Day counties) and on the west by the line dividing ranges 57 and 58 (dividing 
Yankton and Bon Homme counties) constituted the Second Judicial District. 
All that portion west of the line dividing ranges 57 and 58 constituted the Third 
Judicial District. 

Judge Lorenzo P. Williston was assigned to the First Judicial District, and the 
place of holding court fixed at Vermilion. Judge Philemon Bliss was assigned to 
the Second District and the place of holding court fixed at Yankton. Judge Joseph 
L. Williams was assigned to the Third District, and the place of holding court fixed 
at Bon Homme. 

The first term of the court was to be held in the First District on the first 
Monday in August, 1861, and thereafter on the first Mondays in May and Sep- 
tember of each year. 

In the Second and Third districts on the third Alonday in August and there- 
after annually on the first Mondays of May and September. 

It will be noticed that no provision was made for courts in the Red River 



278 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

settlements, and when a land office was established it was opened at Vermilion, 
and the first filings on North Dakota lands were made at that office. 

PERSONNEL OF OFFICERS 

Governor Jayne was a townsman and friend of President Lincoln. He 
served with credit two years. At the election in 1862 he was awarded a cer- 
tificate of election as delegate to the Thirty-eighth Congress, and served from 
March 4, 1863, to June 17, 1864, when he was succeeded by John B. S. Todd, 
who had contested his election, when he returned to Springfield, 111. Todd was 
elected delegate at the first election, as a non-partisan, although known to be a 
democrat. 

The judges were all men learned in the law, and of excellent character. 
Judge Bliss resigned in 1864 and went to St. Joseph, Mo., and engaged in the 
practice of law. Judge Williston was transferred to Montana in 1863 and was 
succeeded by Ara Bartlett of Illinois. Judge Williams returned to Tennessee 
on the expiration of his term. 

The Town of Williston, N. D., was named in honor of Judge Williston, who 
was greatly admired by Mr. James J. Hill, the great railroad builder. 

John Hutchinson came from Kansas, although credited to Minnesota, where 
he had previously resided. He was appointed on the recommendation of Secre- 
tary of State William H. Seward. He brought his family to Yankton and 
became a bona fide citizen of Dakota. Hutchinson County, S. D., was named 
in his honor. He served four years as secretary of the territory and was reap- 
pointed but resigned to accept the consulship to Leghorn, Italy. After his return 
he engaged in the practice of law at Chicago. 

Surveyor-General Hill is credited with the first practical and persistent efforts 
to induce immigration to Dakota Territory, and with having secured the settle- 
ment of the first considerable Dakota colony, known as the New York Colony. 
He served four years and returned to Ann Arbor, Mich. 

United .States Attorney-General Gleason served four years and was then 
appointed associate justice in place of Judge Williams, and later consul to Bor- 
deaux, France, returning to Baltimore on his retirement from that position. 
United States Marshal Shaffer served about a year and resigned, desiring to 
enter the military service, being an ardent Union man. He returned to Mis- 
souri. 

Gleason and Shafifer were bachelors ; only Hutchinson brought his family to 
the territory. The governor and chief justice brought their wives as far as Sioux 
City, where they remained, owing to lack of suitable accommodations at Yank- 
ton, the temporary seat of government. Some of the officers joined the Todd 
faction and opposed the early-developed aspirations of the governor to succeed 
General Todd in Congress. 

The Sioux Falls element had taken the lead in the movement for territorial 
organization, overlooking the importance of an organic act. They elected a dele- 
gate to Congress and sought his recognition. They were defeated by the Yank- 
ton movement and the strong influence brought to bear by the masters of politics 
from Missouri. Todd controlled the situation from the very beginning. The 
misfortune of 1862, through Indian hostilities, ended for a time the early aspira- 
tions of Sioux Falls to become the capital. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 279 

THE INITIAL POLITICAL MOVEMENT 

The first political convention was held at Vermilion, June i, 1861. George M. 
I'inney was chairman and A. W. Puett, secretary. 

The resolutions declared allegiance to the Union, the Constitution and the 
laws, and pledged cordial support to the governor and secretary, favored the 
passage of the Homestead Law and the policies of the administration, and 
denounced monopolies of every nature, especially in connection with the public 
lands. The convention nominated A. J. Bell for delegate to Congress. 

It was claimed that all present except Pinney were from Vermilion and that 
he was not a voter under the organic act, having come from Minnesota in May 
after the creation of the territory in March. 

Mr. Charles P. Booge, trader at the Yankton Agency, was nominated for 
delegate to Congress at Bon Homme early in September. 

Capt. John B. S. Todd was a candidate for delegate regardless of party, 
desiring to keep away from partisan issues, believing that if elected he could 
accomplish most without antagonizing either party. The location of the capital 
at Yankton was known to be in line with his personal interests. 

Mass conventions were held, generally of a non-partisan character, for the 
nomination of members of the Legislature. 

The Yankton convention was called for August 24th, by John Stanage, James 
M. Stone, Downer T. Bramble, William Miner, \\'illiam Thompson, Frank 
Chapell, Enos Stutsman, D. Fisher, Moses K. Amistrong and J. D. Morse. Dr. 
Justus Townsend was president and J. D. Morse, secretary. Moses K. Arm- 
strong and John Stanage were nominated by acclamation for representatives and 
Enos Stutsman and Downer T. Bramble for the council. Moses K. Armstrong, 
James M. Stone, J. R. Hanson and James M. Allen were appointed a committee 
on resolutions. 

The resolutions endorsed the war policy of the administration in all of its 
endeavors to put down the rebellion and preserve the Constitution and the Union 
of States ; they expressed appreciation of the act of Congress in granting Dakota 
self-government, and pledged support of the officers of the territory in their 
efforts to preserve peace; they urged economy of time and money in the Legis- 
lature, prompt action and an early adjournment, and instructed the nominees to 
that end. They also favored a James River ferry charter and the election of 
Todd to Congress. All of the nominees being democrats, there was some dis- 
satisfaction. Stone and Hanson published a protest against the use of their 
names on the Resolution Committee without their knowledge or consent, and 
pledged their utmost exertions for the defeat of the ticket. An opposition ticket 
was put in the field with J. B. Greenway and William Thompson for the council 
and James M. Stone and Otis B. Wheeler for representatives, but the regulars 
were duly elected. 

DELEGATE TO CONGRESS 

The result of the election for delegate to Congress was as follows: Total 
vote cast, 585; John B. S. Todd, 397; A. J. Bell, 78; Charles P. Booge, 109; 
C. Booge, I. Mr. Todd having received the highest number of votes, was elected 
for the term ending March 3, 1863. taking his seat December i, 1861. 



280 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

The vote cast in the Pembina precinct was 15 and in the St. Joseph precinct 
171, all for Todd for delegate to Congress. 

Those elected to the council were : First District — Wilmot W. Brookings, 
Sioux Falls, and Austin Cole, Sioux Point (James McFetridge, Pembina, 
received 173 votes and Brookings got but 84, and filed notice of contest; not 
received, however, until after Brookings was sworn in). Second District — 
Henry D. Betts and John W. Boyle of Vermilion. Third District — Jacob Deuel, 
west of Vermilion River. Fourth District — Enos Stutsman and Downer T. 
Bramble, Yankton. Fifth District — John H. Shober, Bon Homme. Sixth Dis- 
trict — J. Shaw Gregory, Mixville or Fort Randall. 

House of Representatives : First District — John C. McBride, Elk Point, and 
Christopher RIaloney of Sioux Point. Second District — George P. Waldron of 
Sioux Falls. Third District — Hugh Donaldson, Pembina. Fourth District — 
Lyman Burgess and A. W. Puett of East Vermilion. Fifth District — Bligh E. 
V Wood and Jacob A. Jacobson, West Vermilion. Sixth District — Moses K. Arm- 
strong, Yankton, and John Stanage, James River crossing. Seventh District — 
George M. Pinney and Reuben Wallace, Bon Homme. Eighth District — John L. 
Tiernon, Fort Randall. 

The failure to recognize the vote cast for AIcFetridge left the settlements in 
the northern part of the territory without representation in the council, although 
actually having nearly one-half of the population in the whole territory. 

THE FIR.ST LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 

The first legislative assembly convened in Yankton, March 17th and con- 
tinued until May 15, 1862. At the temporary organization of the council, Enos 
Stutsman was elected president, but on the permanent organization John H. 
Shober was elected in his stead. The members were sworn in by Judge Bliss. 
Prayer was ofifered by Rev. S. W. Ingham, Methodist clergyman of Vermilion, 
who was elected chaplain. James Tufts of Mixville was elected secretary ; 
William R. Goodfellow, of Elk Point, messenger, and Charles F. Picotte, Yank- 
ton, sergeant-at-arms. 

The members of the House of Representatives were sworn in by Judge Bliss, 
prayer was offered by Rev. D. D. Metcalf of Bon Homme. George M. Pinney 
of Bon Homme was elected speaker; Joseph R. Hanson, chief clerk; James Allen 
of Sioux Falls, assistant clerk; Daniel Gifford, Bon Homme, enrolling clerk; 
James Summers, Sioux Falls, sergeant-at-arms; Ole Anderson, East Vermilion, 
fireman; A. B. Smith, Tower Butte, messenger, and Rev. D. D. Metcalf, Bon 
Homme, chaplain. 

George W. Lamson, private secretary, read the message of the governor at 
the meeting on the second day. 

THE GOVETJNOR's MESSAGE 

The governor called attention to the vast area of the territory as then organ- 
ized, extending from the 97th to the 113th degrees of longitude, embracing an 
area greater in extent than all of New England combined with New York, Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri, including the vast basins and mountain 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 281 

raiiges, and waters flowing southward into the Gulf of Mexico and northward 
into Hudson Bay. He spoke of its excellence of soil and climate, of its 
capacity for raising numerous herds of cattle and the production of wheat and 
other agricultural products, and prophesied that the great wheat-growing belts 
of this continent would be developed in the valleys of the Red River and Sas- 
katchewan, and that before a generation passed more than a million people would 
be found residing in the Missouri Valley alone ; that the P'aciiic Railroad would 
be completed, connecting the two oceans with iron bands, and the trade of India 
and Japan would be found passing through Dakota on its way to the Atlantic, 
and that towns and cities would spring up along the great highways of traffic. 
He spoke of the mineral wealth to be developed in the Black Hills and Wind 
River region, and of the vast resources of coal. He urged the importance of 
schools and of military preparedness for protection from a savage foe. He 
denounced slavery, which had caused trouble in other territories, in most vigor- 
ous terms, and urged laws forever prohibiting involuntary ser\-itude excepting 
for crime ; and that they declare by legislative enactment that labor shall be 
honored, respected and rewarded, leaving no room for a privileged class spum- 
ing labor and the laborer — a class exalted above common sympathies and cares, 
sacred against vulgar necessities and scorning occupation. 

He warned against bank men and bank charters and the evils of a pernicious 
paper currency. He urged a stringent election law, and suggested memorials to 
Congress for military roads, a geological survey and in favor of a Pacific Rail- 
road and a Homestead Law. 

He reviewed the progress of the Civil war and congratulated the territory 
on its ready response to the call for volunteers to garrison Fort Randall, thus 
relieving the regular army for duty in the field. 

PARTIAL JUSTICE TO PEMBINA 

The contest of McFetridge for a seat in the council received no attention, on 
the theory that the Pembina region belonged to the Chippewa Indians ; there- 
fore, the Legislature memorialized Congress for a treaty to extinguish the Indian 
title, and passed a bill giving that region one councilman and two representatives 
in the next Legislature. 

LOCATION OF THE CAPITAL 

Yankton and Vermilion were contestants for the capital location, with Siou.x 
Falls a dark horse in the race. The contest lasted twenty days with varying 
shades and was finally settled in favor of Yankton ; Vermilion got the univer- 
sity and Bon Homme the penitentiary as a result of the manipulations ; and 
George M. Pinney, who was the uncertain element in the battle, resigned his 
position as speaker and was succeeded by John L. Tiernon. .\s an incident of the 
contest Lieut. Frederick Ploghofif of the Dakota Cavalry, in command of twenty 
men, appeared in the hall of the House of Representatives and took a position 
by the side of the speaker. A committee of investigation was appointed and a 
demand for an explanation filed with the governor, who replied in writing that 
such action was taken at the verbal and written request of the speaker of the 



282 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

House of Representatives, claiming that from threats and representations 
received from rehable sources he feared the business of the House would be 
interrupted by violence and he called upon the governor for a force to protect 
the House in the lawful pursuit of its duties. The indignation of the House 
resulted in the speaker's resignation and John L. Tiernon was elected in his 
stead. 

The session of the Legislature passed civil, criminal, judicial and probate 
codes and other wholesome laws and defined the boundaries of "Clay, Cole (now 
Union), Bon Homme, Charles Mix, Brughier (now Buffalo), Jayne, Hutchin- 
son, Lincoln, Minnehaha, Brookings, Todd and Gregory counties, in the southern 
part of the territory, and Stevens, Cheyenne and Kittson counties in the northern 
part. 

The Old Settlers' Association was chartered during this session of the Legis- 
lature, with J. B. S. Todd, J. S. Gregory, James Tufts, W. W. Brookings, E. 
Stutsman, J. H. Shober, Reuben Wallace, D. Gififord, E. Gifford, N. McDonald, 
C. F. Picotte, John Stanage, J. B. Amidon, G. P. Waldron, B. M. Smith, A. C. 
Van Meter, J. Deuel, J. R. Hanson, A. G. Fuller, D. T. Bramble, M. K. Arm- 
strong, J. M. Allen, Austin Cole, F. Carman, J. Wherry, H. C. Ash, John L.' 
Tiernon, J. M. Stone, W. P. Lyman, W. H. Granger, C. W. Cooper, R. M. 
Johnson, Norman W. Kittson, L. M. Griffith, F. J. DeWitt, J. C. McBride, Chris- 
topher Maloney, H. S. Donaldson, James McFetridge, William Mathews, M. 
Ryan, John McClellan, J. B. LaPlant, A. Mason, Peter Arpin, John Brouillard, 
W. W. Benedict, Ole Bottolfson, Ole Anderson, C. Lawson, A. B. Smith, George 
Brown, Moses Herrick, J. McCase, John Lefevre, Felix Leblanc, George Bour- 
ret, H. Bradley, Joseph Chattelion and A. W. Puett, charter members. 

THE PUBLIC PRINTER 

Josiah Trask having been appointed public printer by the secretary of the 
territory, John Hutchinson, George W. Kingsbury arrived at Yankton on March 
17, 1862, to assist in the legislative printing, expecting to remain during the 
legislative session only, but from that day to this (October, 1916) has remained, 
during fifty-four years, becoming identified with every feature of "Dakota His- 
tory." In 1915 he contributed two volumes of "Dakota History," published by The 
S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago, which will prove of value as long as 
time shall last. He came from Lawrence, Kans., by stage from St. Joseph, Mo. 
The Dakotian at Yankton was the first newspaper established after the passage 
of the organic act, and was published by the Dakota Printing Company. Frank 
M. Ziebach and William Freney, members of the company, had been engaged 
in the publication of the Sioux City Register. During the session of the first 
Legislature a mock legislature was opened, with Frank M. Ziebach governor, 
and this afforded the leading and most attractive means of entertainment during 
the legislative session. The Press was later established, and in time consoli- 
dated with the Dakotian under the management of George W. Kingsbury. 
Ziebach later established the Scotland Citizen, one of the ablest papers in the 
territory. 

The first Legislature did its whole duty and deserves the highest praise. 
Even at that early date the wives, sisters and daughters of the pioneers had 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 283 

taken their place among the elements working for present and future good. 
The following tribute to the western wife, published in the National Maga- 
zine for February, 1905, deserves a place in these pages: 

A WESTERN WIFE 
By Will Chamberlain 
Jefferson, South Dakota 

She walked behind the lagging mules 

That drew the breaker thro' the soil ; 
Hers were the early-rising rules, 

Hers were the eves of wifely toil. 

The smitten prairie blossom'd fair, 

The sod home faded from the scene; 
Firm gables met the whisp'ring air, 

Deep porches lent repose serene. 

But with'ring brow and snowy tress 

Bespeak the early days of strife; 
And there's the deeper-wrought impress— 

The untold pathos of the wife. 

O western mother ! in thy praise 

No artist paints nor poet sings, 
But from thy rosary of days 

God's angels shape immortal wings ! 

DAKOTA INDIAN AFFAIRS 

The following information relative to Indian agencies was furnished for this 
history by the Indian office : 

Section 2 of the Act of June 30, 1834, entitled "An Act to provide for the 
organization of the Department of Indian Affairs (4 Stat. L., 235)" provided 
"and be it further enacted, That there shall be a superintendency of Indian 
Affairs for all the Indian country not within the bounds of any state or territory 
west of the Mississippi River, the superintendent of which shall reside at St. 
Louis, * * *" This superintendency seems to be known, in the reports, as 
the "Central Superintendency," at that time under the Department of War. 

The Act of March 3, 1847 (9 Stat. L., 203), authorizes the secretary of war 
to establish each superintendency, agency and sub-agency either by tribes or 
geographical boundaries. 

Section 5 of the Act of March 3, 1849 (9 Stat. L., 395), transferred the office 
of the commissioner of Indian Affairs from the jurisdiction of the secretary 
of war to that of the secretary of the interior. 

The Yankton Sioux Reservation, located in the extreme southern part of 
Dakota Territory, consisting of 400,000 acres, 2,000 Indians, was created by 
treaty of 1858 (11 Stat. L., 743). 

The Ponca Reservation, consisting of 576,000 acres, 735 Indians, was created 
by the "Ponca Treaty" of March 12, 1858 (12 Stat. L., 997). 

The Fort Berthold Reservation, consisting of 8,640,000 acres, having super- 
vision over the Arikara, Gros Ventre and Mandan tribes, was established by 
unratified agreements of September 17, 1851, and Jitly 27, 1866, and executive 
order of April 12, 1870. 

The Lake Traverse (Sisseton) Reservation, composed of 1,241,600 acres. 



284 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

1,496 Sioux Indians of Sisseton and Wahpeton bands, was established by treaty 
of February 19, 1867 (15 Stat. L., 505). 

The Devil's Lake Reservation, composed of 345,600 acres, 720 Sisseton, 
Wahpeton and Cuthead bands of Sioux Indians, was established by treaty of 
February 19, 1867 (idem). 

The General Sioux Reservation, comprising the following agencies, in all 
25,000,000 acres, in charge of Brule, Ogallah, Miniconjou, Lower Yanctonai, 
Oncpapa, Blackfeet, Cuthead, Two Kettle, Sans Arc and Santee bands of Sioux 
Indians, was established by treaty of April 29, 1868 (15 Stat. L., 635). 

Grand River Agency, 6,000 Indians. 

Cheyenne River Agency, 5,000 Indians. 

Whetstone Agency, 5,000 Indians. 

Red Cloud Agency, Wyoming (temporarily on North Platte River when 
report of 1872 was made), 7,000 Indians. 

Crow Creek (Upper Missouri) .Agency, 3,000 Indians. 

The Act of March 2, 1861 (12 Stat. L., 239-240), organized the Territory of 
Dakota and prescribed the duties of the office of the governor, and, among other 
things, said: 

"* * * he shjiii perform the duties and receive the emoluments of super- 
intendent of Indian Affairs * * *" 

Section 6 of the Appropriation .Act of July 15, 1870 (16 Stat. L., 360-361), 
provided : 

"And be it further enacted, That the President be, and he is hereby authorized, 
to discontinue any one or more of the Indian superintendencies, and to require 
the Indian agents of such superintendencies to report directly to the Commis- 
sioner of Indian Affairs." 

Presumably under this authority the Dakota superintendency was discontinued 
in 1870 and the agencies named above appear thereafter as "Independent 
Agencies." 

The same authority gives the names of Indian agents and traders in Dakota 
Territory in 1872 as follows : 

INDIAN AGENCIES AND AGENTS IN DAKOTA TERRITORY, 1872 

Sisseton Agency, M. N. Adams. 
Devil's Lake Agency, W. H. Forbes. 
Grand River Agency, J. C. O'Connor. 
Cheyenne River Agency, T. M. Kones. 
Whetstone Agency, D. R. Risley. 
Upper Missouri Agency, H. F. Livingston. 
Fort Berthold Agency, J- E. Tappan. 
Yankton Agency, T. G. Gassman. 
Ponca Agency, H. E. Gregory. 

INDIAN TRADERS IN DAKOTA TERRITORY, 1872 

E. H. Durfee and C. K. Peck, Fort Berthold Agency. 
E. H. Durfee and C. K. Peck, Grand River Agency. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 285 

E. H. Durfee and C. K. Peck, Cheyenne Agency. 

Thomas G. Cowgill, Mouth of White River. 

Frankhn J. DeWitt, Fort Thompson Agency (Crow Creek), at or near the 
site of old Fort Lookout, and at or near the mouth of White Earth River, 
Dakota. 

George W. Howe, Ponca Agency. 

Downer T. Bramble and William Miner, Yankton Sioux Agency, opposite 
Fort Randall, known as White Swan. 

James Fitzsimmons and Andrew J. Miller, Republican County, Dakota. 

Downer T. Bramble and William Miner, Yankton Agency. 

Joseph Bissonette, Sr., Whetstone Agency. 

George W. Howe, Ponca Agency. 

Francis D. Yates, Whetstone Agency. 

Thomas G. Cowgill, Cheyenne Agency. 

Fort Thompson was named for Clark W. Thompson, of La Crosse, Wis., 
builder of the Southern Minnesota Railroad from La Crosse to Wells, and Man- 
kato, Minn., and superintendent of Lidian Affairs on the Upper Missouri in 
r862. 



CHAPTER XX 
DAKOTA IN THE CIVIL AND INDIAN WARS 

COMPANIES A AND B, DAKOTA CAVALRY THE TERRITORIAL MILITIA ORGANIZED 

OPERATIONS IN CONNECTION WITH THE INDIAN UPRISING OF 1862 SIBLEY's 

EXPEDITION OF 1863 — BATTLES OF BIG MOUND, BUFFALO LAKE AND STONY 
LAKE — DEATH OF DOCTOR WEISER, LIEUTENANT FREEMAN AND LIEUTENANT 

liEEVER BATTLE OF THE MACKINAW SULLY's EXPEDITION OF 1863 — BATTLE 

OF WHITE STONE HILLS SULLY 's EXPEDITION OF 1864 BATTLE AT APPLE 

CREEK LOCATION AND BATTLE OF KILLDEER MOUNTAIN BATTLE OF THE LITTLE 

MISSOURI OR "where THE HILLS LOOK AT EACH OTHER" SULLY AT BRASSEAu's 

POST ON THE YELLOWSTONE— SITE OF FORT BUFORD SELECTED FORTS STEVENSON, 

SULLY AND WADSWORTH FISK's EXPEDITION THE BATTLE OF RED BUTTES 

THE WHITE WOMAN CAPTIVE THE MASSACRIC NEAR FdKT PHIL KEARNEY — THE 

GREAT SIOUX RESERVATION. 

The goxernor of Dakota having been authorized to raise two companies of 
cavalry for patrol and garrison duty, recruiting stations were established at 
Yankton, \'ermilion and Bon Homme. J. Kendrick Fowler was appointed 
recruiting officer at Yankton, Nelson Miner at \'ermilion and James M. Allen at 
Bon Homme ; and Company A was mustered into the United States service in 
April, 1862, with Nelson Miner, captain; J. Kendrick Fowler, first lieutenant: 
and Frederick PlogholT, second lieutenant. The non-commissioned ofificers were 
.A. M. English, first sergeant; Patrick Conway, E. K. Wilson, F. P. Hobler, 
William Neuman, Ben F. Estes, J. B. Watson and Horace J. Austin, sergeants ; 
George Falkenberg, David Benjamin, Joseph Ellis, William Young, C. H. Stager, 

C. H. Brured, .\mos Shaw and Adolph Mauxsch corporals ; A. Hanson and 
E. Wilkins, buglers ; A. Jones, farrier, and Timothy Pringle, blacksmith. 

Privates : M. Anderson, J. .Mien, R. Alderson, C. Andrews, B. Bellows, W. 
VV. Benedict, Robert Burkhart, John Betz, John Bradley, John Bell, N. Cusick, 

D. Campbell, N. Ellingson, J. Floeder, N. Felling, J. Gray, J. Haggin, J. Johnson, 
C. Lewison, J. Ludwig, J. D. Morse, T. A. McLeese, A. Munson, P. Omeg, C. 
Olson, L. E. Phelps, H. M. Pierce, George Pike, J. Solberger, J. Tallman, T. J. 
Tate, B. H. Wood, J. Wells, H. Woodruff, J. Cramer, George Hoosick. H. Snow, 
A. Gibson, Michael Fisher, J. H. McBee, John Claude, John Collins, S. Delaney, 
Thomas Frick, J. O. Ford, B. F. Gray, E. Harrington, Ben Hart, J. Kinney, 
Charles Long, Merrill G. Lothrop, J. Markell, John McClellan, M. J. Mind, O. 
N. Orland, O. Olsen. J. O. Phelps, James E. Peters, R. A. Ranney, P. Sherman, 
J. Trumbo, A. J. Drake. T. H. Weegs, Charles Wambold, Charies Wright and 
W. H. Bellows. 

286 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 287 

Lieutenant Ploghoff resigned and James Bacon was commissioned second 
lieutenant in his stead. Lieutenant Fowler also resigned. The company, after 
receiving their equipment, was stationed for a short time at Fort Randall under 
Lieut. Col. John Pattee of the Seventh Iowa. 

In July Lieutenant Ploghoff reached Yankton with twenty-five men. Captain 
Miner was at Vermilion with a part of the company; a portion under Lieutenant 
Bacon was stationed at Sioux Falls. Sergeant English was at Yankton with 
another detachment. This organization proved of great importance in the 
Indian war which commenced in August, 1862, as related in a previous chapter, 
when Siou.x Falls was burned, several persons killed, and practically the whole 
territory abandoned excepting Yankton, Pembina, Fort Randall, Fort Aber- 
crombie and the upper Missouri trading posts. 

August 30, 1862, the governor called out the militia of the territory, and 
Charles P. Booge was appointed adjutant-general and Robert M. Hagaman, aid- 
de-camp. 

General Booge appointed Moses K. Armstrong aid-de-camp; Downer T. \/ 
Bramble, brigade quartermaster; Joseph R. Hanson, judge advocate, and Rev. 
Melancthon Hoyt, brigade chaplain. 

At a meeting at Yankton August 30, 1862, to organize a company of militia, 
with Enos Stutsman president and George W. Kingsbury secretary, sixty men 
were immediately enrolled and twenty others soon added from the homestead 
settlers. Those enrolled were Enos Stutsman, Downer T. Bramble, William 
Bordeno, W. N. CoUamer, David Fisher, James M. Allen, Newton Edmunds, 
Moses K. Armstrong, H. T. Bailey, Joseph R. Hanson, John E. Allen, George 
W. Kingsbury, J. C. Trask, Obed FoOte, George Brown, Parker V. Brown, 
William P. Lyman, Charles F. Rossteuscher, Charles F. Picotte, Thomas C. 
Powers (afterwards U. S. senator, Montana), Augustus High, William High, 
Lytic M. Griffith, James Falkenberg, Nicholas Felling, .-\ntoine Robeart, A. S. 
Chase, Samuel Grant, John Lawrence, William H. Werdebaugh, John Rouse, 
Saumel Jerome, George N. Propper, George W. Lamson, William Miner, John 
McGuire, Washington Reed, James M. Stone, Joseph S. Presho, Charles Noland, 
John Smart, William Thompson, Bligh E. Wood, James E. Witherspoon. C. S. 
White, A. B. Smith, Charles Wallace, O. B. Wheeler, F. M. Ziebach, D. W. 
Reynolds, Henry Bradley, Samuel Mortimer, John Bradley, Jacob Arend, J. M. 
Reed, T. J. Reed. Charles Nolan, P. H. Risling, Berne C. Fowler, J. W. Evans, 
James Fawcett, Henry Arend, Dr. A. Van Osdel, Rudoljjh Von Ins, John 
Stanage, Gouzaque Bourret, Hans Shager, John Lefevre, William Stevens, 
George Granger, Charles Philbrick, Inge Englebertson, L. Olson, Henry Strunk, 
Lewis Peterson, John Johnson, Peter Johnson, G. P. Greenway, Ole Peterson, 
John Keltz, Barre Olson, Charles McKinney, Christopher Arend, Pierre Dupuis, 
George Mathiesen, Richard Mathiesen, Peter Nugent, William Van Osdel, 
Samuel \'an Osdel, J. N. Hoyt. 

At the meeting for organization next day F. M. Ziebach was elected captain ; 
David Fisher, first lieutenant, and John Lawrence, second lieutenant ; B. F. 
Barge, first sergeant : Antoine Robeart, Samuel Mortimer and F. Wadsvvorth, 
sergeants ; George W. Kingsbury, A. S. Chase, Obed Foote, H. T. Bailey, 
Downer T. Bramble, J. C. Trask. John Rouse and Newton Edmunds, corporals. 

A stockade inclosing 400 feet square, embracing the .^sh Hotel and several 



288 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

other buildings, was built, and here the women and children were generally pro- 
vided with beds and the men were camped. The entire population of Yankton 
County, excepting the settlement at Gayville, which fled to Nebraska, found 
reftige here, and were joined by those at Bon Homme and other near-by places. 
Some from \'ermilion and Elk Point found safety at Sioux City. 

Strike-the-Ree, chief of the Yanktons, who was friendly, advised the settlers 
to flee, as he felt certain that he could not hold his young warriors who were dis- 
posed to join Little Crow's bands, who were on the war path ; but the advice of 
the chief was rejected, after a meeting participated in by married men only, who 
decided by one majority to stay and fight if necessary. After this decision they 
all engaged in hurried preparations for defense. 

The stockade was to have been built of sod, with a ditch in front ; but by 
the time it was completed on the north side, attacks were made by the Indians 
at the ferry and several other places, one of the skirmishes lasting nearly an 
hour, when it was completed with logs, posts, or any other available material. A 
cannon was planted at the gate and the militia and Company A were active in 
scouting. 

There was preparedness everywhere, and as the advices from Little Crow's 
operations were not encouraging, the Yankton Indians resumed their peaceful atti- 
tude ; yet on September 6th, there were several sharp skirmishes and every 
settler who had not already sought safety in the stockade did so or joined with 
the organization for defense. 

The uprising lasted forty days, and after it was over some of the settlers 
returned to their homes ; some never returned. Sioux Falls was practically 
abandoned for six years. 

A militia company was also organized in the Brule Creek settlement with 
Mahlon Gore captain ; a stockade was also built and a detachment of Company 
A stationed there during the fall. A number of settlers lived in the stockade 
for some time, including the Methodist circuit preacher. Rev. J. L. Paine. 
Stockades were built by returning settlers at Vermilion and Elk Point. Many 
settlers sent their families to their former homes. 

The massacre at Sioux Falls occurred September ist. The Norwegian fam- 
ilies at Gayville went to St. Helena, Neb., and organized, with Ole Sampson, 
captain. 

Sergt. A. M. English was particularly active in escorting the settlers to Yank- 
ton and other places of safety. September 6th he joined the Yankton party, with 
his command, adding materially to the military strength. Captain Ziebach had 
taken great precautions and was already well prepared, as were all, and in pre- 
paredness they found safety ; but the main feature of that day of anxiety and 
real danger was the arrival of Capt. Nelson Miner with forty men of Company 
A. The Yankton Indians recognized it and dissuaded the hostiles who were in 
force a short distance away from any further attack. This incident was the 
turning point, and to the brave defenders of Yankton the credit was due. Strike- 
the-Ree no longer urged the retirement of the white settlers. 

Dr. Walter A. Burleigh raised a company of lOO Indian braves for the com- 
mon defense at the Yankton Agency, where he had but recently arrived with 
his family. This also had great influence on the young Yankton braves and kept 
them from breaking away from the restraint of their chief and joining in the 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 289 

work of destruction commenced by Little Crow, who was even then becoming 
discouraged by the resistance of the Sissetons, and the rumors of preparation 
that reached him from every direction. The resistance met at Fort Ridgeley and 
New Ulm was unexpected, and he realized that the time spent in dancing and 
rejoicing over the first day's terrible work could never be regained. 

October 7th, Governor Jayne ordered the enlistment of four military com- 
panies, trusting to future legislation, or orders from the war department, to pro- 
vide for their pay and equipment. Commissions had previously been issued to 
officers for recruiting Company B, which was immediately organized, with Wil- 
liam Tripp, captain; T. Elwood Clarke, first lieutenant; the latter subsequently 
built Fort Hutchinson at the James River crossing, which became an important 
element in the defense of Yankton. It was built of logs with quarters for 100 
men. 

Among other officers commissioned under the call of October 7th were Capt. 
A. J. Bell, Lieut. M. H. Somers, Capt. A. G. Fuller, Lieut. John R. Wood and 
Lieut. W. W. Adams. 

Those enlisted were subsequently mustered into the United States service and 
paid from date of enlistment. Captain Fuller and Lieutenant Fisher erected a 
block-house on the Ash Hotel lots but it never reached full completion, Minne- 
sota, Nebraska and Iowa troops coming to Yankton and other parts of Dakota 
in such force that it became unnecessary. 

INDIAN CAPTIVES RESCUED 

December 31, 1862, two women and six children, who had been captives 
among the Indians since August 22d, taken in the Minnesota massacre, reached 
Yankton. The persons were Mrs. Julia Wright, Mrs Laura Duley; Mrs. Wright 
was accompanied by her daughter, aged five years, and Mrs. Duley by her daugh- 
ter, aged nine years; a niece of Mr. Duley, aged five years, and Rosana and Ella 
Creland, aged nine and seven years, daughters of Thomas Creland, and Lille 
Everett, daughter of William Everett. Mr. J. M. Duley, formerly of Sioux 
Falls, who moved to Lake Shetak, Minn., was killed by Little Crow's bands and 
these women and children made captive. Mrs. Wright was the wife of John A. 
Wright. The women had been forced to walk from the place where captured to 
;he Missouri River and the children much of the way. They were first taken in 
the direction of Devils Lake, and then to the Missouri River near Standing 
Rock, where they were released through the influence of Major Galpin and his 
good wife, the mother of Charles F. Picotte. The major sent twenty horses and 
a supply of provisions for this purpose, a horse and provisions being given for 
each captive. Another story of the rescue of this party is that Four-Bears of 
the Two-Kettle band of Sioux followed the Indians for a long distance and 
finally secured their release for eight horses, and that it was he who turned them 
over to Maj. John Pattee, who sent them to Yankton. Pattee was in command 
of an expedition in search of captives. A large number of captives had been 
recovered at Camp Release after the battle at Wood Lake, mentioned in Chap- 
ter XIII. 



290 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

THE SIBLEY EXPEDITION OF 1863 

After the massacre of 1862, Little Crow and such warriors as cared to share 
his fortunes or feared to remain, went to Canada or sought refuge on the plains 
of Dakota. Little Crow subsequently returned and was killed. See page 203. 

Gen. Henry H. Sibley, moving from Fort Ridgeley, Minn., in 1863, was sent 
to pursue the hostiles and further punish them for their depredations. Gen. 
Alfred Sully was ordered to move up the Missouri River in co-operation with 
him. Sibley's force numbered 4,000 men, consisting of the Sixth, Seventh and 
Tenth Minnesota Infantry, Third Minnesota Battery and a regiment of mounted 
rangers, enlisted for the purpose. 

The expedition crossed the Red River at Fort Abercrombie, and followed 
the Sheyenne through what is now Cass, Barnes and Ransom counties on the 
way toward Devils Lake. The worst drought ever recorded in the history of 
Dakota prevailed at that time. Springs, lakes and streams usually affording an 
abundance of water, were dry. The earth was parched and the atmosphere 
almost like the blast from a furnace. Two hundred and fifty wagons carried 
his supplies. 

THE BATTLES OF BIG MOUND, BUFFALO LAKE AND STONY LAKE 

Proceeding southwesterly from Devils Lake, General Sibley encountered the 
Indians at Big Mound July 24, 1863, and twelve miles farther west at Dead 
Buffalo Lake, about thirty miles east of the Missouri River. The Indians pro- 
fessing a desire for peace, sought a council with the troops and during the 
conference Surgeon Josiah S. Weiser, of the mounted rangers, approached the 
council, and was immediately killed by one of the Indians, supposing him to be 
the commanding officer. General Sibley had previously been warned of the 
purpose of such a conference, the Indians intending to massacre the officers and 
then attack and destroy the troops. The conference was had without his knowl- 
edge. The Indians were in great numbers and General Sibley's command was 
divided, 1,400 infantry and 500 cavalry being with him some distance in advance. 
Immediately following the death of Doctor Weiser, Col. Samuel McPhail at- 
tacked the Indians with two companies of his regiment supported by Lieut. Col. 
William R. Marshall, Maj. George Bradley and Capt. Alonzo J. Edgerton 
and artillery commanded by Lieut. John C. Whipple, and also by the com- 
mand of Col. William Crook and Col. John T. Averill, and the battle of 
Big Mound was on. Col. Robert McLaren remained in command of the 
camp. The Indians occupying the hills and ravines were dislodged and put 
to rout, leaving large quantities of supplies and camp equipage, which Colonel 
McLaren was detailed to destroy. General Sibley joining the command, they 
pursued the Indians to Dead Buffalo Lake, where a still stronger force was 
encountered on the 26th, when another sharp engagement was had with con- 
siderable loss to the Indians, and they again fled toward the Missouri. Here 
the command remained a day, recovering from the severe marching and fighting 
in the Big Mound battle, and for the purpose of destroying the large amount of 
property hidden in the reeds and about the lake, and thrown away by the 
Indians in their flight. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 291 

The number of Indians here engaged appeared to have been largely increased, 
and as the soldiers followed their trail toward the Missouri River they found 
and destroyed much property. 

THE BATTLE OF STONY LAKE 

On July 28th General Sibley again engaged the Indians at Stony Lake, their 
force having been largely increased by parties returning from the hunt. 

General Sibley speaks of the Indian force met here, as being greater than was 
ever encountered in any previous conflict on the American Continent. So great 
were their numbers that they formed two-thirds of a circle around his lines five 
or six miles in extent, seeking some weak point for attack, rushing back and forth 
endeavoring to keep out of range of the unerring frontier riflemen who emptied 
many saddles, and wary of the artillery which had previously wrought much havoc 
with spherical case shell. The fire was rapid and incessant on both sides. Artil- 
lery and long-range rifies were a new element of warfare to them, and becoming 
discouraged they again fled with the troops in hot pursuit. 

At Big Mound the number engaged was estimated at 1,500 to 2,000; at 
Buffalo Lake at 2,000, and of the 10,000 on the war path 2,000 to 2,500 were 
estimated by General Sibley to be then in his immediate front. 

General Sibley pursued them on the 29th and that night camped on the banks 
of Apple Creek, a few mounted Indians being then in sight. On the 30th Colonel 
McPhail was sent forward with the mounted rangers and artillery to harass and 
if possible interrupt their flight across the Missouri River, Sibley following with 
the remainder of the column. The Indian women and children crossed the 
Missouri River the preceding night; and when Sibley arrived at the mouth of 
Apple Creek the hills west of the Missouri were swarming with Indians. The 
Indians in their flight had cached much property in the hills of Apple Creek 
and the Missouri, but had left much in the willows and timber. 

General Sibley made his camp opposite what was then known as Burned Boat 
Island, from the incident of the Assinaboine being destroyed by fire on its way 
down the river with Maximilian's party in the spring of 1834, but now called 
Sibley Island. It was later granted to the City of Bismarck for park purposes 
by an act of Congress, but finally restored to the public domain. Here General 
Sibley remained two days, sending up rockets at night and firing cannon occa- 
sionally by day, hoping to get into communication with General Sully, ordered to 
meet him at this point. 

DEATH OF LIEUTENANT BEEVER 

On his approach to the Missouri River, Colonel Crook was directed to clear 
the woods on the flat north of Apple Creek of Indians, which was done. Lieu- 
tenant Beever, a young English gentleman acting as aid-de-camp on General 
Sibley's staff, was sent with an order to Colonel Crook. Taking the wrong trail, 
he was pierced by Indian arrows at a point about five miles below Bismarck. 
A private of the Sixth Minnesota, Nicholas Miller, who had taken the same 
trail, was also shot' to death by arrows. On the next day Colonel Crook's com- 



292 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

mand destroyed a large amount of property which the Indians had left on the 
east side of the river in their flight, including 150 wagons and carts. 

BATTLE OF THE MACKINAW 

Immediately after General Sibley left the Missouri on August 3d, the Indians 
returned and secured a large amount of property cached by them which Colonel 
Crook did not find; and while engaged in this work a mackinaw appeared com- 
ing down the Missouri River, having on board twenty-one persons, including 
several women and children. The Indians attacked them, killing all and sinking 
the boat. The occupants of the boat, however, killed ninety-one Indians and 
wounded many others before their ammunition failed. This is the story told 
General Sully a few weeks later by an Indian captive and confirmed from other 
sources. General Sully found the wrecked boat on arriving at the Missouri with 
his expedition. 

Further research develops the fact that the party was from the Boise, Idaho, 
mines, and embraced originally twenty-seven miners, two half-blood Indians, one 
woman and two children. They were attacked near Fort Union, and shots were 
exchanged with Indians at various points on the river. At Fort Berthold ten men 
left the boat, regarding the dangers too great to justify them in proceeding. Six 
of these afterward went down the river in three small boats, two in each. There 
were in the boat seventeen miners, two half-blood Sioux, and the woman and two 
children. 'Hie miners were supposed to have one hundred thousand dollars, or 
more, principally in gold dust, in their possession. In the battle against over- 
whelming odds ten of the miners were killed outright, and when the leader fell, 
and their ammunition was exhausted, the Indians rushed the boat and killed the 
others. Red Blanket, a Santee woman, whose brother was killed in the battle, and 
who helped kill the woman, said the Indian loss was about thirty killed. Other 
Indians placed it at forty-two, and still others at thirty-six killed and thirty-five 
wounded. Indians who went to Fort Garry and joined Little Crow, admitted 
taking $18,000 to $20,000 in gold, and some greenbacks from the bodies of the 
slain miners, which they used in buying arms and ammunition. 

Red Blanket said as they stripped the bodies of the dead they found on some 
of them buckskin belts filled with what they supposed was spoiled powder; that 
some of these were ripped open and the contents thrown away. In 1876, Whistling 
Bear, an Arickaree Indian, brother-in-law of Fred Gerard, the trader at Fort 
Berthold, told him about two weeks after the battle to take a few trusty Indians 
with him and go down and examine the bodies and the ground where the battle 
occurred, and see if they could find any gold dust, showing him some, so they 
could recognize it ; that he did as directed, and upon some of the bodies found 
belts filled with gold dust, and on others sacks or belts which had been cut open 
and the contents spilled on the ground. At the boat they found a cofifee pot filled 
with gold dust ; that they gave the gold to Gerard, who, in return, gave him a horse. 
Gerard admitted he received gold in due course of trade, and that he sent word to 
the Sioux that he would allow them full value, in trade, for it. 

The stories of Red Blanket and Whistling Bear were related by them to Joseph 
H. Taylor, and published in a volume of frontier sketches printed and published 
by him. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 293 

THE LOSSES IN BATTLE 

The Indian losses in these several battles were very large, the troops counting 
many abandoned on the field, but there is no definite information as to the 
number. In the Battle of Big Mound it is certain the losses were very heavy, 
as the fighting was frequently at short range, but in the other engagements the 
Indians had become more wary. 

General Sibley's losses were three men killed and four wounded in battle and 
one John Murphy killed by lightning, besides Dr. Josiah S. Weiser (treacherously 
killed at the peace conference preceding the battle of Big Mound), Lieutenant 
Beever and Nicholas Miller at Apple Creek, and Lieutenant Ambrose Freeman of 
Company D, Minnesota Mounted Rangers, who was hunting a short distance 
from Sibley's command the first day of Sibley's engagement with the Indians, 
when he was pierced by Indian arrows and buried on the field with appropriate 
honors. His body and that of Doctor Weiser were later recovered through the 
efforts of Hon. Joel E. Weiser, of Valley City, a brother of Doctor Weiser. 

The body of Lieutenant Beever was recovered and buried with Masonic 
honors in a grave resembling a rifle pit, a lodge being opened for that purpose, 
of which Capt. J. C. Braden was master. Ten years later Captain Braden, then 
grand master of the Minnesota Jurisdiction, and Grand Secretary A. T. C. Pierson, 
came to Bismarck to constitute the Masonic Lodge, and told the story of Lieu- 
tenant Beever's death and burial. They went to the place next day and exhumed 
the body and removed it to St. Paul, where it was buried and the grave cared 
for at the expense of General Sibley. 

Lieut. Fred J. Holt Beever was an ordained clergyman of the English Church. 
He spent two years in New York and came to General Sibley with letters from 
John Jacob Astor and Hamilton Fish, and accompanied General Sibley as a 
volunteer aid-de-camp. On Memorial Day, May 30th each year, his grave is 
appropriately decorated by the soldiers o'f the Grand Army of the Republic. 

Private Nicholas Miller was killed near where Lieutenant Beever was shot. 
Private John Murphy was killed by lightning, and Private John Piatt was mor- 
tally wounded by an Indian whom he had previously wounded. Private Joe 
Campbell killed the Indian. 

A son of Little Crow was found on the prairie exhausted, and taken prisoner 
by General Sibley on his return to Fort Ridgeley, followed by Indian scouts until 
he crossed the James River going east. 

Among the officers who took a prominent part in this campaign were Capt. 
Alonzo J. Edgerton, afterward chief justice of Dakota Territory; Capt. Eugene 
M. Wilson and Col. John T. Averill, afterward members of Congress from 
Minnesota ; Col. James H. Baker, commissioner of pensions ; Col. William R. 
Marshall, governor of Minnesota, and Col. Samuel P. Jennison, secretary of 
state; Capt. Oscar Taylor, John Jones, Jonathan Chase, Peter B. Davy, later 
a North Dakota farmer, and Capt. Abraham L. Van Osdel, prominent in Dakota 
history. Charles Bottineau accompanied Sibley as a guide. 

GENERAL SULLY^S EXPEDITION OF 1 863 

In connection with General Sibley's expedition another was sent from Sioux 
City, under the command of Gen. Alfred H. Sully. It consisted of the Sixth Iowa 



294 EARL^' HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Cavalry, under command of Col. David S. Wilson ; the Second Nebraska Cav- 
alry, Col. Robert W. Furnas; one company of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry under 
Captain Willard ; three companies of the Forty-fifth Iowa Infantry and an 
eight-gun battery. The expedition was accompanied by seventy-five army wagons 
and seventy-five civil employes. They left Yankton June 26, 1863. They went 
by steamboat to Swan Lake, leaving that point August 21, reaching Long Lake 
on the 28th, where a lame Indian was found who told General Sully of Sibley's 
battle and that the Indians lost fifty-eight killed ; that soon after Sibley left 
Apple Creek, the Indians attacked a mackinaw boat, mentioned elsewhere. On 
the 29th General Sully sent two companies of the Sixth Iowa, under the com- 
mand of Capt. D. W. C. Cram, to the mouth of Apple Creek, where they found 
General Sibley's fortified camp, and reported that they saw the mackinaw boat 
mentioned by the lame Indian. 

September 3d they found the remains of many buffalo recently killed and 
numerous Indian trails all leading toward tkeir favorite resort. That day scouts 
located four hundred to six hundred lodges of Indians in a ravine, the warriors 
numbering at least one thousand two hundred. 

Some two hundred Indians surrounded and captured General Sully's guide, 
Frank La Frambois. They were Indians who had fought in the Minnesota 
massacre, and in the battles with General Sibley, and in the attack on the mack- 
inaw; and they told La Frambois that they did not see why the soldiers should 
come out to fight them unless they were tired of living and wanted to die. La 
Frambois escaping, ran his horse ten miles to give his commander the informa- 
tion he had gained as to the identity, strength and purpose of the Indians, 
consisting of Santees, Cutheads, Yanktonais, Uncpapas and Blackfeet. General 
Sully immediately galloped a force to the attack under Col. Robert W. Furnas, 
and the result was the 

BATTLE OF WHITE STONE HILLS 

The battlefield is in Dickey County, North Dakota, about fifteen miles west 
of Monango. Congress granted the State of North Dakota a section of land 
for park purposes, on which the beautiful monument shown in illustration here- 
with is situated. 

The battle occurred September 3, 1863, the forces engaged being the Second 
Nebraska Cavalry, commanded by Col. Robert W. Furnas, from whom these 
facts were obtained through Capt. James A. Emmons ; the Sixth Iowa Cavalry, 
commanded by Col. D. S. Wilson ; and one company of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry, 
commanded by Captain Willard, in all about one thousand two hundred men. 
The aids to General Sully were Capt. J. H. Pell, Captain King and Lieutenant 
Levering of the First Minnesota. The number of Indians was estimated 
at one thousand two hundred warriors, the whole number not less than 
three thousand. Maj. E. A. House in command of 300 men of the Sixth 
Iowa had located the Indians, and his scout had reported to General Sully, 
who hurried Colonel Furnas to his assistance. The latter encountered them in 
the evening, and attacked at once from the direction opposite the approaching 
troops under Colonel Wilson; while Maj. Edward P. Tenbroeck, with two com- 
panies of the Sixth Iowa, charged through the center of the camp. General 




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EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 295 

Sully, in personal command of one company of the Seventh Iowa and the bat- 
ter}-, hurried to the fight. The battle became a hand-to-hand alTair and on 
the arrival of Colonel Wilson the Indians fled, leaving their dead and wounded 
on the field. The dead numbered about two hundred and the wounded about 
the same. One hundred and fifty-eight were captured, including Big Head and 
thirty warriors, who surrendered to General Sully. General Sully's loss was 
25 killed and 38 wounded. Lieut. Thomas J. Leavitt, Sixth Iowa, was 
mortally wounded. The Sixth Iowa lost 11 killed and 21 wounded; the Second 
Nebraska 6 killed and 13 wounded. 

After the battle the troops pursued the Indians in every direction and killed 
and wounded many. General Sully caused fires to be built, while buglers 
sounded the rally to bring back the pursuing forces; scouting parties the next 
day found the dead and wounded in all directions, and ponies and dogs attached 
to travois loaded with bufl^alo meat and other supplies, turned loose on the 
prairies by the Indians. General Sully estimated that they burned from forty 
thousand to fifty thousand pounds of dried buflfalo meat, as one item of the 
destruction that followed the battle. They also destroyed 300 deserted lodges and 
other property of great value to the Indians. It was their winter supply of meat 
and represented more than one thousand slaughtered bufifalo. Capt. R. B. Mason, 
wagon master, said the fat ran in streams from the burning mass of meat. 
They found in the camp or on the dead, loot from the Minnesota massacre, and 
from General Sibley's supply trains, and from those murdered in the mackinaw 
at Apple Creek. The expedition returned overland to Fort Pierre and down 
the river to Yankton. 

Sully's expedition of 1864 

General Sully had been selected to command an expedition in 1864 to further 
continue the punishment of the Indians who had been engaged in the Minnesota 
massacre of 1862, begun by General Sibley that year and continued by him and 
General Sully in 1863. The Indians were concentrated west of the Missouri 
River, harassing the frontier settlers by raids in Dakota, Minnesota and Ne- 
braska, and attacking the transportation on the Missouri River, and the im- 
migrant parties passing over territory they regarded as their own. They 
embraced remnants of Little Crow's bands Uncpapas, Yanktonnais, Blackfeet, 
Minneconjous and parts of other tribes. 

General Sully's headquarters were at Sioux City. He had selected Com- 
panies A and B, Dakota Cavaliy, as his body guard, assigning other troops 
concentrated at Yankton, for the protection of the Dakota settlements. The ren- 
dezvous of his command was at old Fort Sully near Fort Pierre. It consisted of 
the two companies of Dakota Cavalry, Pope's Battery, the Sixth Iowa Cavalry, 
Brackett's Battalion of Minnesota Cavalry, three companies of the Seventh 
Iowa Cavalry and one company of Nebraska Cavalry. They were joined by the 
Minnesota contingent under the command of Colonel Thomas, at Swan Lake ; 
this contingent consisting of the Eighth Minnesota Mounted Infantry, six com- 
panies of the Second Minnesota Cavalry and the Third Minnesota Battery. 

The expedition left Fort Sully June 24th, and reached the Missouri River 
July 3d, and established Fort Rice, on the west bank, a few miles above the 



296 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

mouth of the Cannon Ball River. This fort was built by Col. Daniel J. Dill 
with four companies of the Thirtieth Wisconsin which came by steamer, aided 
by two companies of cavalry detailed for the purpose, and it became the supply 
point for General Sully's expedition and for many succeeding expeditions. 

On the way they encountered some Indians at the mouth of the Little Shey- 
enne River, when Captain Fielding of the topographical engineers was shot 
from ambush and mortally wounded, and one of the soldiers with him was 
shot. The three Indians responsible were pursued by Capt. Nelson Miner, of 
the Dakota Cavalry, and literally riddled with bullets and their heads brought 
into camp. 

General Sully had had twenty years' experience in the Seminole, Mexican 
and border wars, and several of his officers had participated in the campaign the 
previous year. 

July i8th he left Fort Rice, reaching Heart River in the vicinity of Dickin- 
son, when he corralled and left an immigrant train which he had relieved from 
the Indians' attack, and some of his heavier supplies, guarded by a part of his 
force, and proceeded to the Knife River where his scouts reported a large force 
of Indians whom he attacked. 

BATTLE OF KILLDEER MOUNT.^IN 

At Killdeer Mountain on the 28th General Sully encountered a force esti- 
mated by him at 1,600 lodges, representing 5,000 to 6,000 warriors. The Indians 
were expecting him and were ready for the fray. They were so well posted 
and so great was their confidence that they did not take down their lodges, but 
commenced their tactics of circling around his command, each time drawing 
nearer, until they had come within 200 yards. Then fire was opened on them 
and many saddles emptied, when they drew off to a greater distance pursued 
toward their camp by the cavalry. Now thoroughly alarmed, they were trying to 
save their women and children. The troops opened on them with artillery. 

The attack was made with eleven companies of the Sixth Iowa Cavalry, three 
companies of the Seventh Iowa, two companies of Dakota Cavalry, four com- 
panies of Brackett's Minnesota Battalion, Jones's Battery, Pope's Battery, ten 
companies of the Eighth Minnesota Mounted Infantry, six companies of the 
Second Minnesota Cavalry, two sections of the Third Minnesota Battery and 
seventy scouts, the whole force numbering 2,200. 

The attack was made in front, the Indians attempting to flank Sully on the 
left and then on the right and rear, the battle line extending in a circle of about 
three miles. They attempted counter attacks, but were repulsed at every point. 
Major Brackett made a furious attack, which they countered, in which many 
Indians were killed, their attack being repelled by the aid of Jones's battery. 
They made a heavy attack in the rear by a newly-arrived force, which was 
also dispersed by the same guns. 

Sully closed upon their main camp and put them to flight, the artillery driving 
them out of their strong position in the ravines and on the hills, the cavalry 
pursuing. The battle lasted all day, but by sunset there were no Indians in sight 
and the troops slept on the battlefield. 

Colonel McLaren was detailed next day to destroy the large amount of prop- 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 297 

erty the Indians had left in their flight, gathering into heaps and burning at least 
forty tons of dried buffalo meat packed in buffalo skins, great quantities of dried 
berries, tanned buffalo, elk and antelope hides, household utensils, consisting of 
brass and copper kettles, mess pans, etc., saddles and travois and lodge poles, 
which were gathered in heaps and burned. The woods were fired in order to 
make the destruction complete. 

The loss of the Indians was very large, many dead being left on the field. 
Sully's loss was five killed and ten wounded. 

Capt. Nelson Miner, of the Dakota Cavalry, relates that being hard pressed 
at one point, he dismounted and in the fight forgot all about his horse, but when 
the battle was over his horse was by his side, having followed him wherever 
he went. 

LOC.XTION OF THE BATTLE OF BIG MOUND 

From an article in The Record for June, 1896, by Capt. J. W. Burnham, 
who was a sergeant in the Sixth ^Minnesota and present at the Battle of Big 
Mound, July 24, 1863, the following extract is made. Captain Burnham writes 
from notes written at the time. 

"July 24, 1863, our regiment went into camp on the shore of an alkaline lake 
to the right, while the Indians occupied the hills and valleys to the left. The 
general had every soldier to his place, but the scouts (half-breeds or frieiidly 
Indians) went out and parleyed with the Indians. Doctor Weiser, surgeon of the 
mounted rangers, joined one of these parties and commenced talking to the 
Indians in their own language, and giving them, out of his own pockets, tobacco 
and hard bread, when he was suddenly shot and killed, three of them firing 
at once and all standing close to him. Directly after this firing was heard to 
the rear, not explained till the next day, when it was learned that Lieutenant 
Freeman of the rangers, G. A. Brackett, the beef contractor, now as then a 
well-known citizen of Minneapolis, and two Indians scouts were hunting ante- 
lope. The Indians cut them off from the command and when the volley that 
killed Weiser was heard they fired and mortally wounded Freeman. The party 
then hid in the tall rushes on the shore of a little lake till night came, when 
the scouts started for camp. Soon after Freeman died. When Brackett tried 
to reach camp he became lost and after a long tramp reached the track, but so 
far back that he kept on to Camp Atchison, which he reached in four days, 
nearly dead from hunger and fatigue, having had nothing to eat except raw 
frogs. 

"The first movement against the Indians was by the battery, which threw 
shells among them, killing several. When they fell back they were charged by 
the rangers, followed by a large force of infantry. The rangers followed 
them for sixteen miles, killing many and losing some men themselves. In a 
charge made over a rocky ridge in plain sight of camp, the hghtning struck, 
killing one man and horse and knocking down two more. Until their return 
they supposed a shell from the battery had fallen short and struck among them. 

"This battle of Big Mound was a striking scene. The lonely lake, the rocky 
hills, the naked, yelling Indians, soon discomfited and flying, the battery of four 
guns all doing their best, the charging cavalry with sabers drawn, the infantry 



298 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

following, while over all was the darkened sky, the heavy rolling thunder and 
the. incessant lightning with but little rain. It was a view to be remembered 
by a looker-on, as I was that day. 

:i; ;jc :!; ^ :t: :J; :f: -.J; :^ + * 

"July 26. Reveille at 2:30; marched at 4 a. m. Went fourteen miles, find- 
ing Indian property all the way and scattering Indians in sight. They made 
a stand on the shore of a small lake, where lay the body of a buffalo so long 
dead that we did not need sight to be aware of its presence. We called the fight 
here the Battle of Dead Buffalo Lake. 

"They made a stand and the artillery and cavalry drove them several miles, 
the infantry mostly going into camp. Some two hours later, when all seemed 
peaceful and serene around camp, though we could hear the boom of the cannon 
in the distance, a large force of Indians made a dash to cut off a party of 
foragers out cutting the coarse grass and reeds on the shore of the lake. This 
was all we had to feed our mules, as the immense herds of buffalo had eaten 
all the good grass. 

"This attack was repulsed by a company of rangers who, mere by accident 
than design, seemed to be on the right spot at the right time. Some fifteen 
Indians were killed here and in the main battle. The men cutting grass and 
the teamsters were terribly frightened. Supposing themselves out of danger 
most of them were unarmed. This was a mistake they did not again make. 

"About this battle ground lay hundreds of dead buff'alo more or less stri]iped 
of hides and meat, for we had come upon the Indians while in the best of their 
hunt. There were still so many Indians near that we could not allow our ani- 
mals to graze except on one end of a rope with a man at the other end, and the 
best grazing was very poor. All the forage obtainable was of the kind that 
grew upon the lake shore. 

"July 27. We made a long march of twenty-three miles, passing over 
battle ground of previous days, finding large quantities of Indian property, like 
axes, hoes and trinkets, besides tons of meat and hides, tent poles and tents. A 
captured squaw reports large reinforcements to the Indians. We camped at 
night on the stony shore of a sweet water lake near which we fought them 
next day and called the Battle of Stony Lake. 

"July 28. Reveille at 3 ; started at 5 A. M. The Tenth in the advance. 
When the command was in motion, and our regiment about half a mile out, pass- 
ing over a ridge, a great force of mounted Indians dashed upon us. At once 
Whipple, of the battery, with two guns opened- on them with shells, and our 
regiment was deployed right and left from the head of the column, the men 
about far enough apart to touch fingers when their arms were extended. The 
Indians were in great force, variously estimated from one thousand five hun- 
dred to three thousand, and all mounted. They came close up to the line and 
nearly every man, as he put on his bayonet without waiting for orders, thought 
they were going over us. I thought so at any rate, but they recoiled. We 
got one or two shots apiece at them, when they went around us and attacked the 
flanks, where another regiment repulsed them. They fell back and attacked 
the rear, where another regiment and Captain Jones and two guns of the bat- 
tery again beat them off. They then returned to the front. As we lay in the 
grass in the still morning air we could hear the sonorous voices of their leaders 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 299 

urging another charge. But they came not. After waiting two hours for them 
we marched on all day, keeping the order of formation to resist another attack. 
We found one Indian asleep and captured him and his pony. He was dressed 
in fighting costume of a Dacotah warrior: a breech cloth and a pair of moccasins, 
with a buffalo robe along for a bed. He said he was a Teton and belonged 
west of the Missouri. He was released with an admonition. 

"It is said we killed eleven Indians in this fight, but we saw no bodies. We 
killed more in the previous battles. Unlike them we lost no man this day, 
nothing but one horse, and he was so weak that the Indian who got him was 
overtaken and killed before night. We camped this night on Apple Creek. 

THE UATTLE AT APPLE CREEK 

"July 2y. Reveille at i -.^o ; marched at 3 A. M. \\'e spent about three 
hours crossing the creek. The wagons were pulled through by men with ropes. 
We went about three miles, when the Missouri Valley was before us, just 
below the site of Bismarck, the river about eight miles of?. The general expected 
the Indians would be unable to cross, but we could see them in crowds on the 
opposite blufifs. He had sent ahead the cavalry and the guns and we soon saw 
the latter rapidly firing. We hurried on, fatigued as we were, under a broiling 
sun. thinking a battle was going on, and found the caValry had been repulsed 
from the thick grove by Indians shooting arrows and the artillery was shelling 
them out. They saw very few Indians except those across the river on the 
bluft's. They were flashing their mirrors in the bright sunlight in answer to 
the reflections doubtless visible from the glittering barrels of our Springfield 
rifles. 

"We were marched within about a mile of the timber and two miles from 
the river, where we lay for three hours, when we were ordered into cainp on 
a bench near the creek and about two miles from its mouth, where we arrived 
about 5 P. M., completely exhausted with hunger, thirst, fatigue and lack of 
sleep, having marched about twelve miles that day. 

"Meanwhile the Sixth Regiment skirmished the woods, but saw few Indians. 
When they approached the river they found hundreds of carts and wagons, 
and tons of stuff that the Indians were unable to take across the river. On 
the bank they were hailed from the opposite shore : 'We do not want to fight 
the whites!' and were answered by a scout who talked with them for some 
time, but when the men approached the river to fill their canteens hundreds 
of shots were fired at them from the tall grass opposite, but the shots mostly 
fell short and did no injury. Today Lieutenant Beever, General Sibley's vol- 
unteer aid, was lost in some way. He was sent by the general with an order 
■to Colonel Crooks, commanding the skirmishers in the woods. He delivered his 
order but did not return. A private of the Sixth is also missing. Our mules 
and horses are entirely exhausted and men nearly as far gone. Many of them 
are dropping out of the ranks to be picked up by the ambulances. During 
the last few days a very common sight was to see a mounted man fall behind. 
He would get off and lead the horse and very often he was still unable to keep 
up. A shot would then finish the horse, the saddle and bridle would go to the 
nearest wagon and the soldier go on afoot. At this camp we had grass and 



300 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

water, but, as before, our animals would not be safe beyond the end of a rope. 

'■July 30. The long roll beat twice in the night. Indians all around and 
shots are continually being exchanged. We could hold no ground beyond the 
reach of our guns. Rockets were sent up and guns fired both night and day 
to signalize Lieutenant Beever. With all our care the Indians ran off a few 
mules. 

''A detachment of 700 men were sent out to skirmish through the woods 
again and find the missing men if possible. The cannon went with them, and 
while writing this in camp I hear the guns speaking out occasionally. 

"We heard bad reports during the day from the river bank, and the general 
sent down reinforcements, but about 10 P. M. the troops all came in, having 
suffered no loss. They killed a few Indians and found the bodies of the missing 
men. Lieutenant Beever carried three revolvers and had evidently made a 
vigorous fight, and had been shot with three arrows. His horse had been 
killed with a bullet. Like most of the army he wore his hair short, and the 
Indians had cut around his head endeavoring to scalp him, but were unable to 
pull it off, so they scalped the long whiskers from one of his cheeks. The 
soldier, having longer hair, was scalped in the usual manner. During the night 
under a strong wind the Indians set the grass on fire, but a line of men with 
wet blankets met it and soon put it out. 

"August I. Had a 'bad time of it last night. Indians prowled around 
camp all night. Single ones were fired upon many times by the guard. About 
midnight a large force crawled up on the burnt ground and fired a heavy volley 
into the camp, shooting through many tents and killing a mule and stampeding 
the herd of beef cattle, which broke away, but fortunately were stopped and 
driven back. No men were shot, though the firing was kept up on both sides 
most of the night. In the reduced state of men and horses, especially the latter, 
all we could do at this time was to repel attack. We had already marched 
farther than our supply of provisions would warrant, and this day we marched 
twenty miles towards home. We had no sooner left the camp than the Indians 
took possession, and only a small force followed us. Our camp tonight has 
plenty of good grass and water." 

LOCATION .\XD B.\TTLE OF KILI.DEER MOUNT.MN 

The curator of the North Dakota Historical Society in 1915 visited the Kill- 
deer Mountain Battlefield in Dunn County and the result was published in the 
Fargo Forum as follows : 

"Bismarck, N. Dak., August 15. — For work accomplished and results obtained 
the trip of H. C. Fish of the State Historical Society and S. S. Campbell of 
Sentinel Butte was one of the most successful this year. They were both pleased- 
and gratified by the hearty co-operation they received from so many in Dickin- 
son and in Manning and at Kildeer. 

"The trip was unique, for after forty-six years Mr. Campbell expected to 
point out the place of the battle between Sully and the Sioux which occurred 
July 28, 1864. He had not visited the old scenes since, and the whole fight was 
in his mind as he saw it then. But what helped to keep the scene so vivid was the 
constant reading of his old diary which he kept in 1864 during the whole of the 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 301 

Sully campaign. Many of the old troopers for years after the trying march 
wrote to Mr. Campbell and wanted to know when and where different events 
occurred. And, too, some of the old soldiers wanting a pension applied to Mr. 
Campbell to give the exact place where they were hurt. The small diary with 
its well fingered pages has kept the old days well in mind. 

"Tuesday morning of last week the two gentlemen left for Manning on the 
stage and they were met at the county seat by Superintendent Melby, who was 
very much interested in getting a correct idea of the old days, and taken to the 
Killdeer. It was very fortunate that Mr. Melby took the party direct to the 
home of John Ross, who lives adjoining the Diamond C Ranch in the east. The 
father of Mrs. Ross was in the same campaign and Mr. Ross knew the family of 
Mr. Campbell in the old days of Minnesota. All the courtesies that could be 
desired were extended to Mr. Fish and Mr. Campbell in their search for the old 
routes. 

"On Wednesday morning Mr. Ross took the party up over the hill to the 
Diamond C Ranch buildings and Mr. Campbell at once recognized the lay of the 
land, and when they went out to the south of the spring and the house he said, 
'This looks just like the old Indian camp. If it is, there is a dry coulee just over 
there to the south.' The dry coulee was found. 

"On this broad open space south of the old spring i,6oo Indian tepees were 
arranged. Mr. Campbell said that they camped the first night after the battle 
just west of the Indian camp. The thickest of the battle occurred on the ranch 
of John Ross, where the Indians made the last stand before their camp was taken. 
The camp of the second night was at the spring on the old Craig Ranch, some 
eight miles east of the battle grounds. 

"The course of events taken from Mr. Campbell's diary is interesting. They 
started from Sioux City Tuesday, May 31, 1864, and gradually made their way 
up the Missouri to Fort Rice and then across country to the Indian stamping 
grounds. On July 25 the whole army of Sully corralled their extra horses and 
teams some place fifteen or twenty miles south of Dickinson. 

"There were also fifty teams of the emigrants bound for Idaho who were 
going along under the protection of the army. This enormous corral has not been 
located and it is the wish of the society to have some of the old troopers help us 
find the place. After the corral was established the troopers took nine days' 
rations for a rapid march into the Indian country. On July 26th the army 
marched one mile and grazed their horses till 2 o'clock. Then scouts came in and 
reported that they had a skirmish with the Indians. Mr. Campbell's battalion 
was put on double quick for nineteen miles. July 27th the army marched twenty 
miles and grazed their horses and then marched ten miles and camped on Knife 
River. At this place there were many petrified stumps and trees. The dav of the 
battle, July 28th, the army marched twelve miles before light and grazed their 
horses and took breakfast. After breakfast they went four miles and met the 
main body of the Indians. 

LONG LINE OF BATTLE 

"The army formed a line of battle and for nine miles there was a running 
fight. This started at 9 o'clock in the morning and all day long the right bat- 



302 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

talion fought the Indians hand to hand. Many of the Indians had only war clubs 
and bows and arrows and very primitive guns, but from behind every rock and 
group of trees the arrows showered upon the troopers. At one time a very large 
force of the Indians came in from the rear and attempted to capture the battery 
of twelve cannon. They made their way with all the fiendish glee they could 
muster, but they did not reckon on the gunners. They waited until the Indians 
got within 200 yards of the battery and then let two charges go. This made an 
awful swath in their ranks, and the Indians turned like a pack of frightened 
sheep before the onslaught of wolves and fled, followed by a terrific saber charge 
by the troopers. This stand was the turning point in the battle. From this time 
on the soldiers had the Indians on the run for the hills and the saber was 
exchanged for the revolver. They soon had the Indians over the hills among 
the brakes. That night under the silent skies the dead were buried on the camp- 
ing grounds, and horses were picketed over the grave to destroy all signs of the 
place. 

INDIANS HID IN HILLS 

"The next morning, on Friday, July 29th, the soldiers tried to follow the 
Indians, but they could not do it with success because of the brake back of the 
hills. The army turned back and in the dry coulee south of the Indian camp 
tons of meat, both jerked and pemmican, 1,600 tents, poles, clothing, blankets 
were burned. 

"That afternoon the army marched eight miles east to the spring at the old 
Craig Ranch. Just as the dusk was creeping over the army 600 Indians drove 
fiercely through the camp and tried to stampede the horses. The two outer 
guards were killed, but other than this not a shot was fired or a person hurt. It 
created a great deal of excitement for a time, but the night brought on nothing of 
importance. This night was vivid in the memory of Mr. Campbell. He well 
remembers looking towards the battle grounds many times and seeing the constant 
light of the torches the long night for the dead and wounded or for some things 
which were hidden in the flight. 

"During the next two days the army made their way back sixty-seven miles to 
the corrals. In the battle at the Killdeer, or, as the Indians call it, 'Ta-ha-kouty,' 
or the 'place where they kill the deer,' some 2,200 soldiers were actively engaged 
against 5,000 or 6,000 Indians. Sully reported some 150 of the Indians killed 
and 5 soldiers killed. 

"From this battle ground up to Yellowstone and back to Fort Rice the Indians 
kept at their heels and the army had to be on their guard constantly." 

The ground on which the battle was fought is now described as sections 8, 9, 
10. II, 12, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 32. 2Q, 30. 31 and 32, and north half sections 2"] 
and 28, Township 146 North, Range 96 West 5th Principal Meridian in Dimn 
County North Dakota The legislature of kjij authorized the appointment of a 
Killdeer Mountain Fark Commission, and (iovernor Lynn J. Frazier appointed 
Colonel C. A. Lounsberry, W. A. Richards and A. A. Liederbach members of such 
commission, and legislation is now pending for the creation of a national park 
covering the battleground. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 303 

RATTLE OF THE LITTLE MISSOURI, OR "WHERE THE HILLS LOOK AT EACH OTHEr" 

Returning to his camp on the Heart River in order to reach a pass through 
the Bad Lands, known to one of his Yankton Indian guides, General Sully on 
August 5th camped at what is now Medora, •'where the hills look at each other." 
In order to pass through the Bad Lands, it became necessary to cut into the hill 
sides at many points. The Indians attacked the camp from the hills that evening, 
and at one point cut off some of the horses, which, however, were recaptured; 
and next day, on several occasions, they attacked the working parties. The 
nnmigrant train, having women and children moved by oxen, impeded the march 
and lengthened the column to three or four miles, making it necessary to double 
up the line for protection, and yet at many points in the Bad Lands they could 
only pass in single file. The danger to the immigrants added to the difficulties 
of the situation, and to the anxieties of the general. On the 6th every butte 
(hill) was covered with Indians, some of the hills were 300 feet in height, 
others sharp-pointed, almost touched, as well as looked at each other ; some were 
low, others mere banks of clay or scoria, as good as those built for defense; 
others resembled chimneys or other ruins of a burned city, for they had been 
formed by burning coal mines and the erosion which followed. It was necessary 
to climb up steep hillsides, plunge down into deep gullies, pass through wooded 
ravines, crawl along narrow gorges, sometimes in the beds of dry streams, and 
without water that hot day in August until late in the afternoon, when they 
reached a small lake and springs, where the Indians had concentrated in an 
effort to keep them from water. There was fighting almost every step of the 
way, but the Indians, wary from the battle of July 28th, had little heart for 
close-range fighting. At the lake and springs the encounter was sharp, but the 
Indians again fled, having lost very heavily in the ten-mile battle in these Bad 
Lands of the Little Missouri. 

As Sully moved forward the next morning' he encountered about one thousand 
Indians. The skirmishes were frequent, but when they reached the open country 
they saw a cloud of dust made by fleeing Indians about six miles away; and 
that was the last seen of them for several days. 

General Sully estimated the Indian losses in the battle of the Little Missouri 
at not less tlian one hundred killed; some of the officers of his command esti- 
mated the number as high as three hundred. 

General Sully continued on to the Yellowstone, where he arrived August 
I2th, meeting the steamers "Chippewa Falls" and ".'Mone" with supplies. The 
steamer "Island City," loaded with supplies, struck a snag and was sunk near 
Fort Union. The boats had gone up the Yellowstone as far as Brasseau's post, 
where Sully crossed over by fording, intending to go northeast in the hope of 
again striking the Indians. The country at the Little Missouri was covered by 
myriads of grasshoppers, which had entirely destroyed the grass; and on reaching 
the Missouri and Yellowstone he found the waters rapidly falling; so he changed 
his plans and returned down the Yellowstone to Fort Union, where he arrived 
on August i8th, and selected the site for a military post, resulting later in the 
establishment of Fort Buford. Sully then continued down the Missouri River 
to Fort Rice; first establishing Fort Stevenson, where he left a company of 
the Sixth Iowa Cavalry under Captain Mooreland, and another at Fort Berthold 



304 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

for the protection of the Gros-Ventres, Arikaras and Mandans, who had been 
friendly to the whites during the prevailing Indian troubles. He also left one 
company at Fort Sully ; some of the command returned to Yankton and Sioux 
City, and some marched overland to Fort Wadsworth, which had been built that 
summer under General Sibley's jurisdiction for the protection of the friendly 
Sissetons, who had done such excellent service during and following the Min- 
nesota massacre. The garrison at Fort Wadsworth July 31, 1864, when visited 
by Captain Fisk's expedition, was in command of Maj. John Clowney. It con- 
sisted of three companies of the 30th Wisconsin, viz : Company B, Captain 
Burton ; Company E, Captain Devling ; Company K, Captain Klaats, and Com- 
pany M, Second Minnesota Cavalry, Captain Hanley; Third Section Third Min- 
nesota Battery, Battery Capt. H. W. Western. Capt. J. E. McKusick was 
quartermaster of the post. Maj. Mark Downie and Thomas Priestly were then 
there. George A. Brackett, with a train of 150 wagons, was camped near the 
post. 

fisk's expedition 

When General Sully reached Fort Rice he was advised that a party of 
immigrants known as the Fisk Montana and Idaho Expedition, consisting of 
88 wagons and 200 men, women and children, escorted by 47 soldiers, detailed for 
the purpose at Fort Rice, which left that point for Montana and Idaho August 
23d, had been attacked by Indians near the Bad Lands and twelve of the party 
killed and several wounded ; that they were fortified and had sent in an oft'icer 
and thirteen men who had left the camp after the third day's battle to procure 
assistance. 

General Sully immediately sent a force to their relief under Colonel Dill, 
consisting of 300 of the Thirtieth Wisconsin, 200 of the Eighth Minnesota and 
TOO of the Seventh Iowa. They left Fort Rice September i8th and returned 
with the immigrant train September 30th. Colonel Dill lost one man on the 
trip, his fate not being known. 

THE B.\TTLE OF RED BUTTES 

Captain Fisk's party left Fort Rice August 23, 1864. The battle of Red Buttes, 
as the attack on Capt. James L. Fisk's expedition was called, occurred September 
2, 1864. 

When ]6o miles west of Fort Rice and 22 miles cast of the Bad Lands near 
Dickinson, one of the wagons met with an accident. Two men and one wagon 
were left to assist the man with the overturned wagon ; also a guard of nine 
soldiers. Another man of the immigrant party had returned to the dinner 
camp to recover a lost revolver. Of this party eight were killed and four 
afterward died of wounds. One escaped through being sent to warn the train, 
which corralled, and a party was sent to their defense. The fight continued 
until sunset. One of the defenders, JelTerson Dilts, being more reckless than 
the rest, and who was mortally wounded, was credited with having killed eleven 
Indians, and many others were known to have been killed. 

The immigrants lost in this affair one wagon loaded with liquors and cigars. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 305 

and one containing among other things 4,000 cartridges for carbines and several 
carbines and muskets, and they also "lost" a box of poisoned hard bread. The 
corral was formed in low ground and six of the dead that were recovered were 
buried that night by lantern light. 

A territic thunderstorm occurred that night and water next morning was 
from one to three feet deep in their camp. As they moved next morning they 
were surrounded by drunken Indians, some smoking cigars, some of the Indians 
being reckless in their intoxicated condition. The train moved about two miles 
and again corralled. 

Moving out the next morning, they were surrounded by a much stronger and 
more desperate force which attacked on both sides of the train. Reaching suit- 
able ground, the train corralled and fortified, building breastworks of sod about 
six feet in height and large enough to inclose the entire train, and made ready 
for a siege which continued sixteen days before relief came. The next day they 
were again surrounded by a force of from three to five hundred Indians, but 
the mountain howitzer in the fort kept them at a respectful distance and no 
further casualties occurred. 

That night Lieutenant Smith with thirteen men returned to Fort Rice for 
reinforcements which were, it will be seen, promptly sent by General Sully. 

The men of Fisk's party who were killed were Louis Nudick, who went back 
for his revolver; Walter Grimes and Walter Fewer, teamsters; and the wounded, 
Jefferson Dilts and Albert Libby. Six soldiers were also killed and four 
wounded. The fort was called Fort Dilts, in honor of Jefferson Dilts, the 
wounded scout who died of his wounds and was buried under its walls. A spring 
was found near the fort, which furnished an abundance of water. 

THE WHITE CAPTIVE 

The Indians had a white woman captive in their camp, Mrs. Fanny Kelly, of 
Geneva, Kan., captured near Fort Laramie, July 12, 1864. On the next day the 
Indians formed on the adjacent hills and sent three unarmed warriors forward 
with a flag of truce. A party went out to meet them, when they planted the 
flag on a stick and retired. Attached to the stick was a letter reading: 

"Makatunke says he will not fight wagons, but they have been fighting two 
days. They had many killed by the goods they brought into camp. They tell 
me what to write. I do not understand them. I was taken by them July 12th. 
They say for the soldiers to give forty head of cattle. Hehutahunca says he 
fights not. But they have been fighting. Be kind to them, and try to free me 
for mercy's sake. Mrs. Kelly." 

"Buy me if you can and you will be satisfied. They have killed many whites. 
Help me if you can. Uncapapa (they put words in and I have to obey) they say 
for the wagons they are fighting, for them to go on. But I fear for the result 
of this battle. The Lord have mercy on you. Do not move." 

Other correspondence followed. Mrs. Kelly again wrote: 

"I am truly a white woman and now in sight of your camp, but they will not 
let me go. They say they will not fight, but don't trust them. They say How 
d'ye do. They say that they want you to give them sugar, cofifee, flour, gun- 



306 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

powder, but give them nothing till you see me for yourself, but induce them, 
taking me first. 

"They want four wagons and they will stop fighting. They want forty cattle 
to eat. I have to write what they tell me. They want you to come here. You 
know better than that. His name Chatvaneo and the other's name Porcupine. 
Read to yourself. Some of them can talk English. They say this is their 
ground. They say go home and come back no more. The Fort Laramie soldiers 
have been after me but they (the Indians) run so, and they say they want knives 
and axes and arrow iron to shoot bulTalo. Tell them to wait and go to town 
and they can get them. I would give anything for liberty. Induce them to show 
me before you give anything. They are very anxious for you to move now. 
Do not I implore you for your life's sake. Fanny Kelly." 

"My residence formerly Geneva, Kansas.'' 

For the ransom of Mrs. Kelly, Captain Fisk oftered three good American 
horses, some flour, sugar and coffee, or a load of supplies, but the Indians did 
not give her up. Mrs. Kelly was ransomed later by a priest on the Canadian 
border. 

Capt. James L. Fisk enlisted as a private in the Third Minnesota Battery 
September 20, 1861, and was promoted captain and A. Q. M., volunteers, May 
29, 1862. He resigned June 12, 1865. He conducted successful expeditions to 
Montana and Idaho in 1862 and 1863, and a fourth expedition without military 
protection, to Montana in 1866. This expedition reached the Missouri River at 
Fort Berthold via Forts Abercrombie and Wadsworth, July 20, 1866; Fort 
Union, August 2d; and Helena, Mont., September 29th, via Fort Benton, with- 
out accident or exciting incident, while other trains on the line through Nebraska 
had fighting all the way. One train was reported to have lost seventy men near 
the Yellowstone and the whole route was said to be strewn with fresh-made 
graves. 

A few days before the arrival of Captain Fisk's 1866 train at Fort Union, about 
2,000 Indians came to a point on the opposite side of the river to trade. When 
the traders went to meet them the Sioux fired on them, wounding two, taking 
a portion of the goods. The condition of the Indian mind at this time is well 
illustrated in the incidents leading up to the massacre of Colonel Fetterman's 
command near Fort Phil Kearney. 

THE MASSACRE NEAR FORT PHIL KEARNEY 

The massacre of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Fetterman and his command 
near Fort Phil Kearney, December 21, 1866, was an incident in the life of 
Dakota Territory and a natural sequence of the attempt to drive the Indians out 
of the country, the possession of which had been guaranteed to them by both 
law and treaty. 

In the spring of 1866, Gen. John Pope, commanding the District of Mis- 
souri, which included Minnesota, Dakota, Kansas and Nebraska, created the 
Mountain District and assigned Col. Henry B. Carrington to its command. 
General Pope's orders contemplated the erection of new military posts, one near 
Fort Reno, one on the Big Horn and a third on the head waters of the Yellow- 
stone. 





^ 




RED CLOUD 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 307 

Fort Reno, formerly known as Fort Conner, was to be moved farther west 
on the Virginia City trail. Colonel Carrington's headquarters had previously 
been at Fort Kearney, Nebraska Territory. April 13, 1866, the preliminary 
order was issued for the proposed new movement. His command consisted of a 
battalion of the Eighteenth U. S. Infantry, then stationed at Fort Kearney, 220 
men. May 19, 1866, 1,000 recruits having arrived for his regiment, he marched 
two days later, reaching Fort Reno, on the Powder River, June 28th. The 
country about Fort Reno being unsuitable for a permanent post, the first of the 
new posts was erected at Piney Forks. It was built between two streams, Piney 
Creeks, which came from deep gorges in the Big Horn Mountains about five 
miles apart. It was built on a plateau about 600 by 900 feet in extent, a portion 
touching the Little Piney. Here a stockade was built of pine logs from the 
abundant supply in the immediate vicinity. A hill half a mile distant commanded 
a view of the Tongue River Valley and the road for eleven miles, was utilized 
for a signal station. There was excellent water, cold, pure and clear; good 
grazing, good meadows and an abundance of timber and coal, in the vicinity. 
It was in the very heart of the Indian hunting groimds, with an abundance of 
buffalo, elk, deer, bear and other game in the surrounding country, which was 
occupied by Indians of several tribes, including Crows, Shoshones, Cheyennes, 
Arrapahoes and Sioux, who had hunted here in undisturbed possession of the 
country. 

The Crows and Shoshones were friendly to the whites and one band of 
Cheyennes professed to be friendly. The Cheyennes were well armed and sup- 
plied with powder recently obtained through the Laramie treaty. 

Under General Pope's orders immigrants were not allowed to go through the 
country unless well organized and in large parties, and they were forbidden to 
trade with the Indians, or under any circumstances to furnish them with 
whiskey. 

The post had a garrison of two companies when first built. As early as July 
31st, Colonel Carrington reported evidences of hostility and that it was apparent 
the Indians intended to harass the whole line of transportation from the Mis- 
souri River to the JMontana mines. Much live stock had been stolen from 
settlers and from small parties and from the Government or traders' herds. 
Colonel Carrington reported that he was convinced he would be compelled to 
whip the Indians and that they had given him every provocation. Wagon trains 
passing through the country were worn out by being obliged to camp on high 
hills, away from water, so persistent were the Indians in their attacks. 

The day before Colonel Carrington arrived at Fort Reno, forty-three Indians 
drove away two head of stock near the fort at midday, and on June 30th the 
herd of stock belonging to A. C. Leighton, the post sutler, were run off. July 
14th, Colonel Carrington was informed by the friendly Cheyennes, representing 
176 lodges, that the Sioux would allow his command to remain in the country 
if they returned to Powder River (Fort Reno) ; that Red Cloud's forces num- 
bered 500 and he was in control of the Indians in the vicinity, and that the 
Sioux claimed that the treaty for a road through that country did not mean two 
roads; that they did not agree to this and would not allow but one. They 
objected particularly to a road north of the Big Horn and accused Colonel Car- 
rington of coming into the country to take their hunting grounds from them. 



b08 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

July 17th the Indians attacked the train of Brevet Major Haymond, which had 
arrived at Piney Forks two days before, and drove away 174 head of stock. 
Haymond pursued but was forced to return with the loss of two men killed and 
three wounded by arrows. He found in Penn Valley the bodies of Pierre Gas- 
seaux (French Pete), his partner, Henry Arrison, and four others, one being 
Joseph Donalson, a civilian Government teamster. Gasseaux's Sioux widow 
said the Sioux came to their place and found Black Horse, of the Cheyennes, 
and other Indians trading; that they whipped Black Horse, who had delivered 
to them a message from Colonel Carrington, counting "coos," almost the equiva- 
lent in Indian "honor" to taking their scalps, on his party. Gasseaux was on his 
way to report to Colonel Carrington when killed, as Black Horse told him he 
would be. This was the beginning of new hostilities which were based on the 
report by Black Horse that the troops intended to remain in the Big Horn region. 

The project of building a fort on the Yellowstone was abandoned. The post 
on the Big Horn was to be called Fort C. F. Smith. Carrington's new post was 
already named Fort Phil Kearney. 

July 2 1st, Lieut. Napoleon H. Daniels, in charge of a wagon train, and 
one corporal, were killed. July 23d Kirkendall's train was attacked but the 
Indians fled on the approach of the troops under command of Brevet Lieu- 
tenant Colonel Kinney. The body of Terrance Callary of Company G, iSth 
Infantry, who had been hunting buffalo was found ; he had been killed before 
the presence of the Indians was discovered. In a skirmish at Reno Creek, one 
soldier and one teamster were killed, and after the work of building the fort 
commenced, scarcely a day or night passed without depredations of some sort 
by the Sioux. 

August 1 2th the Indians ran off horses and cattle belonging to citizens en- 
camped at Fort Reno ; on pursuit by the troops some of the cattle were recaptured. 
August 14th Joseph Postlewaite and Stockney Williams were killed, four miles 
from Fort Reno. August 17th the Indians drove off seven horses and seventeen 
mules from Fort Reno. August 29th Colonel Carrington reported that the 
post on the Big Horn (Fort C. F. Smith) had been successfully established; 
that this was timely — as on the day previous to the arrival of the troops the 
Indians had robbed a citizen's train of 100 mules ; that the Indians had molested 
trains as far west as the Wind River, in one case only one man out of twelve 
•escaped unhurt; that the total number killed up to that time was thirty-three 
whites and thirty-seven Indians. In the case where the eleven whites were killed, 
the Indians had been entertained by Mr. Dillon, the head of the party when sud- 
denly the Indians commenced shooting their entertainers. 

The Indians were reported divided, the young men favoring war, the old men 
counseling peace. Dissatisfaction with the Laramie treaty was their principal 
cause of complaint, coupled with the fear of losing their hunting grounds, tlien 
occupied by Colonel Carrington's command. 

•In November a mail party of twenty soldiers and seventeen miners was 
attacked by 300 Indians; the miners lost four horses. Lieutenant Bradley re- 
turning from Fort Benton was attacked and his chief guide, Brennan, killed. 
James Bridger, sent to interview friendly Crows, who were camped in the 
vicinity, reported that it took half a day's ride to go through the camps of the 
hostile Sioux ; that he was so informed by the Crows who had been importuned 




A GROUP OF OLD TIME TRADERS 
Colonel Robfi-t Wilson, seattd: Left to ri.olit standin;;: -lolin SmitI 
'"Jack" Morrow, A. C. Leighton 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 309 

by Red Cloud and others to join in the war against the whites. Ahnost every 
band of the Sioux were represented and some of the Gros-Ventres from the 
Missouri River; they said they would not touch Fort Reno but intended to 
destroy the two new posts ; that they would have two big fights at Pine Woods 
(Fort Phil Kearney) and Big Horn (Fort C. F. Smith). 

A fight was also had at Fort Phil Sheridan in which eight Indians were killed, 
three subsequently died of wounds and many others were wounded. A citizen's 
party near the fort, who were playing cards by their camp fire, were fired upon 
by the Indians and three wounded. September the 8th the Indians attacked a 
citizens' train near Fort Phil Kearney, driving off twenty mules ; October loth 
twenty Indians attacked ten herders near the fort, driving off thirty-three horses 
and seventy-eight mules. October 13th the Indians attacked a haying party, killed 
one man and ran off 209 cattle, burned the hay and destroyed the mowing ma- 
chine. The same day they stampeded the Government herd and wounded two 
herders. September 14th Private Alonzo Gilchrist and on the i6th Private Peter 
Johnson were killed. September 17th the Indians drove off forty-eight head of 
cattle which were retaken on pursuit. September 20th they attacked a citizens' 
party near the fort. One Indian was killed and one wounded. September 23d 
they drove off twenty-four head of cattle owned by a contractor. In a sharp 
skirmish the cattle were recovered. The hay party was again attacked and on 
their return to the fort they found the bodies of Mr. Gruell and two teamsters 
who had been to Fort Smith with supplies. They met twenty soldiers and seven- 
teen miners who had been corralled by the Indians and fought two days before 
relieved. Depredations were committed about Fort Reno on the 17th, 21st and 
23d of September. Several head of government stock were run off and Casper 
H. Walsh killed during these operations. In an attack on a citizens' train W. R. 
Petty and A. B. Overholt were wounded. Septembei 27th Private Patrick Smith 
was scalped alive and mortally wounded, but crawled half a mile to the block 
house where he died the next day. An attempt was made to cut off the picket 
near the forts by the Indians who killed Smith, and other supporting parties, 
but they were driven off by shell fire. Bailey's party of miners arrived that day. 
They had lost two men killed and scalped by the Indians. September 17th 
Ridgeway Glover, a citizen artist, who left the fort without permission, was 
found two miles away dead, naked, scalped and mutilated. 

September 25th the Indians took ninety-four head of stock from Contractor 
Chandler's herd. A short fight occurred in which five Indians and a white man 
known as Bob North, their leader, was killed ; sixteen Indians were wounded. 
During the month one citizen was killed near Fort Smith. October 4th Colonel 
Carrington reported the loss of one soldier, scalped on the wood train. October 
13th two. were killed and one wounded of the wood party. Indian activities 
were reported late in November with occasional loss of stock. 

December 6th Indians attacked the wood train. Lieut. Horatio S. Bingham 
and Sergt. C. R. Bowers were killed. Bowers killed three Indians before he 
fell. The Indians showed their respect for his bravery by leaving him unscalped. 
Five other soldiers were wounded. The Indian loss was estimated at ten killed 
and many wounded. 

Thereafter Indians appeared about the fort almost every day until the 19th, 
when a train was reported corralled on the hill and attacked by a large force. 



310 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

December 21st the wood train was again reported corralled about a mile and a 
half from the fort. A force of eighty-one officers and men and two citizens, 
James S. Wheatley and Isaac Fisher, were sent to their relief, under the command 
of Brevet Lt. Col. William Judd Fetterman and Lieut. George W. Grunimond, 
accompanied, without orders, by Capt. Frederick H. Brown. They were attacked 
near the train when they rashly followed the Indians in flight nearly five miles. 
Here they were surrounded and all were killed. The bodies of Colonel Fetter- 
man and Captain Brown were found near four rocks where the last stand had been 
made, each with a revolver shot in the left temple, and it was believed they had 
shot each other. The bodies of Wheatley and Fisher were found naked with 
105 arrow shots in one and many in the other. The Henry rifle shells and the 
pools of blood about them told the story of the execution done by them. Pools of 
blood indicated the point where sixty-five Indians fell in the desperate conflict. 
Three of these were near Lieutenant Grummond. All of the bodies were shock- 
ingly mutilated. 

The dead were: Officers, Capt. and Brevet Lieut. Col. William J. Fetterman, 
Capt. Frederick H. Brown, and Lieut. George W. Grummond. 

Company A, second battalion, i8th Infantry: First Sergt. Augustus Long; 
First Sergt. Hugh Murphy, Corpl. Robert Lennon, Corpl. William Dute; Pri- 
vates Frederick Ackerman, William Betzler, Thomas Burke, Henry Buchanan, 
Maxim Diring, George E. R. Goodall, Francis S. Gordon, Michael Harten, Mar- 
tin Kelly, Patrick Shannon, Charles M. Taylor, Joseph D. Thomas, David 
Thorey, John Thompson. Albert H. Walters, John M. Weaver and John 
Woodruff^. 

Company C, Second Battalion, 18th Infantry: Sergt. Francis Raymond, 
Sergt. Patrick Rooney, Corpl. Gustave Bauer, Corpl. Patrick Gallagher; Privates 
Henry E. Aarons, Michael O. Garra, Jacob Rosenburg, Frank P. Sullivan, and 
Patrick Smith. 

Company E, Second Battalion, i8th Infantry: Sergt. William Morgan, Corpl. 
John Quinn, Privates George W. Burrell, John Maher, George H. Waterbury, 
and Timothy Cullinane. 

Company H, Second Battalion, 18th Infantry: First Sergt. Alex Smith, 
First Sergt. Ephraim C. Bissell, Corporal Michael Sharkey, Corporal George 
Phillips, Corpl. Frank Karston, Privates George Davis, Thomas H. Madden, 
Perry F. Dolan, Asa H. Grififin, Herman Keil, James Kean, Michael Kinney, and 
Delos Reed. 

Company C, Second U. S. Cavalry : Sergt. James Baker, Corpl. James Kelly, 
Corpl. Thomas H. Herrigan, Bugler Adolf Metzger, Artificer John McCarty, 
Privates Thomas Amberson, Thomas Broghn, Nathan Foreman, Andrew M. 
Fitzgerald, Daniel Green, Charles Gamford, John Gitter, Ferdinand Houser, 
William M. Bugbee, William L. Corneg, Charles Cuddy, Patrick Clancey, Har- 
vy S. Deming, U. B. Doran, Robert Daniel, Frank Jones, James P. McGuire, 
John McColly, Franklin Payne, James Ryan, George W. Nugent, and Oliver 
Williams. 

All of the bodies were recovered and fittingly buried in the Post Cemetery. 

These facts are mainly gathered from the report of Col. Henry B. Carrington, 
and his evidence before the congressional investigating committee, found in 
Senate Document No. 33, 50th Congress, First Session. 




WILLIAM A. HOWARD 

Sixth governor of Dakota Territory, 1878 to 18S0. Died 
in office, 1880 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 311 

I 

THE GREAT SIOUX RESERVATION * 

The Fort Phil Kearney massacre led to the adjustment of existing difficulties 
with the Indians and to the Treaty of April 29, 1868, and the establishment of 
the Great Sioux Reservation. It was a treaty by Warrior Chiefs on the one side 
and illustrious soldiers, viz: Lieut. Gen. William T. Sherman, Brevet Maj. Gen. 
William S. Harney, Brevet Maj. Gen. Alfred H. Terry, Brevet Maj. Gen. 
Christopher C. Augur, Brevet Maj. Gen. John B. Sanborn, and several distin- 
guished citizens. 

Section i declared : "From this day forward all war between the parties 
to this agreement shall forever cease. The Government of the United States de- 
sires peace and its honor is hereby pledged to keep it. The Indians desire peace 
and they now pledge their honor to maintain it." 

The United States agreed by this solemn treaty, ratified and proclaimed, 
that no person excepting certain designated persons, officers, agents and employees 
of the Government authorized so to do in order to discharge duties enjoined by 
law, should ever be permitted to pass over, settle upon or reside in the territory 
set aside for this reservation, the United States relinquishing to the Indians all 
claim to the land within such reservation. And if there was not enough to give 
each Indian 160 acres of arable land it was agreed they should have more. 

The United States agreed to erect agency buildings, a saw mill and grist 
mill. Each head of a family was allowed to select 320 acres of land and each 
other person over eighteen years of age was allowed to select 80 acres of land 
and each male person over 18 years of age, after residing upon his selection for 
three years and making certain improvements was to receive a patent for 160 
acres. Assistance in farming was provided for and provision made for school 
houses and schools. Clothing was promised for 30 years for men, women and 
children. Food was also promised for four years after settling upon the land, to- 
gether with oxen and utensils for use in operating their farms. 

The Indians agreed to allow the construction of the Pacific Railroad and 
any railroad not passing over their reservation, and that they would not attack or 
molest any one or carry off white women or children from their homes nor kill 
and scalp white men. 

And yet hostilities continued and eight years later the Custer massacre 
occurred, growing out of resistence by the Indians to the demands for opening 
of the Black Hills and the extension of the Northern Pacific Railroad. But the 
hostilities were at first mere depredations by lawless individual characters. 



CHAPTER XXI 
POLITICS IN INDIAN AFFAIRS 

THE CUSTER MASSACRE AND THE CAUSES LEADING UP TO IT VIOLATED INDIAN 

TREATIES STEAMBOAT LOADS OF SUPPLIES STOLEN HOLDING UP THE INDIAN 

AND MILITARY TRADERS THE BELKNAP SCANDAL AND HOW IT WAS SPRUNG 

CUSTER's LAST CHARGE THE STORY OF THE BATTLE LISTS OF THE DEAD AND 

WOUNDED RENO AT THE LITTLE BIG HORN HEROISM OF DR. H. R. PORTER 

LIGHTNING TRIP OF THE STEAMER "FAR WEST" CAPT. GRANT MARSH — DR. POR- 

TER's STORY FIRST NEWS OF THE BATTLE THE NEW YORK HERALD. 

The Story of the Custer massacre, June 25, 1876, is a part of the history of 
Dakota not only because of its effect in opening the western parts of the territory 
to settlement, the early construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and the 
forced amendment of the Sioux treaty creating the Great Sioux Reservation, 
but because of those slain, every one of whom had friends or acquaintances at 
Bismarck. Some had wives and children there, others near and dear ones. All 
had friends, and friendship seemed closer then, when Bismarck was a frontier 
city. The people at Bismarck, Jamestown, Valley City, Fargo, Moorhead and 
even Brainerd were neighbors, but the nearest and dearest friends of Bismarck 
and Bismarck people were at the military posts. The families of the officers and 
men at Fort A. Lincoln were part of the social life of Bismarck. Forts Rice, 
Stevenson and Buford were also always taken into consideration and were con- 
sidered their next best friends and next nearest neighbors. 

The Sixth United States Infantry had its headquarters at Fort Buford, the 
Seventeenth at Fort Rice. Both had companies at Bismarck or Fort A. Lincoln. 
Mrs. Gen. W. B. Hazen, later Mrs. Admiral Dewey, then a bride passed through 
Bismarck in the spring to join her husband at Fort Buford. She landed at Bis- 
marck during the raging snow storm early in May, 1873, and passed up the 
river by ambulance to Fort Buford. 

Only construction trains were then run between Fargo and the end of the 
track, some forty miles east of Bismarck, and there was no regular communica- 
tion between there and Bismarck. The mails were carried by the quartermaster 
department, Bismarck receiving its supply from Fort A. Lincoln. Samuel 
A. Dickey was the postmaster at Bismarck and Mrs. Linda W. Slaughter, his 
assistant, had charge of the office. She was later appointed postmaster, resign- 
ing in February, 1876, when Col. Clement A. Lounsberry succeeded her and 
remained the postmaster until he resigned in 1885, the office having grown in 
the meantime from fourth to second class. Dickey was post trader at Fort A. 
Lincoln. Col. Robert Wilson was in charge of the trader's store. 

312 




l:jii>, -^il ■ r; r. Wii. 






Chief Gaul 




Sitting Bull 


Eain-in-the-Face 


NOTED SIOUX 


Bull Head 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 313 

In the spring of 1873, Gen. George A. Custer arrived at Fort Rice with the 
Seventh U. S. Cavalry, and participated in the expedition of that year to the Yel- 
lowstone. The cavalry barracks at Fort A. Lincoln were built that year and occu- 
pied on the return of the expedition, as regimental headquarters, a portion of 
the regiment being located at Fort Rice, and two troops at Fort Totten on 
Devils Lake. 

In 1874 General Custer conducted an expedition to the Black Hills and set- 
tled the question as to the existence of gold in that region. Professor Winchell, 
of the Minnesota University, accompanied the expedition, together with other 
specially invited scientists. Gen. Frederick D. Grant, then a lieutenant in the 
army, went as the special representative of President Grant. William E. Curtis, 
the famous newspaper correspondent, represented the Chicago Inter-Ocean, Na- 
than H. Knappen, the Bismarck Tribune. H. N. Ross, then of Bismarck, was 
selected as the head of a mining party, equipped for prospecting. It was under- 
stood that the scientific portion of the expedition was organized to disprove the 
stories of the existence of rich gold fields in the Black Hills. A solemn treaty had 
been entered into with the^Sioux Indians reserving almost an empire, lying west of 
the Missouri River and embracing the Black Hills, for the exclusive use of the 
allied tribes, as related in the preceding chapter. 

Custer's expedition to the Black Hills was permitted by General Sheridan 
but it was stipulated that the expedition should not return within sixty days. 
It left Fort Abraham Lincoln July 2d, and returned August 31st. It is quite 
certain that the organization of the mining party was not authorized. It was the 
good fortune of the Bismarck Tribune to have its correspondent assigned to the 
mining party with instructions to report the facts. The scientific party found no 
gold. The representatives of the other great newspapers saw none. The per- 
sonal representative of President Grant was oblivious to its presence, but the 
miners found it and the representative of the Bismarck Tribune saw it and 
gave to the world the first information concerning the fact, and the Tribune had 
the first assay made of Black Hills ore. General Custer sent Scout Charles 
Reynolds to Camp Robinson, Nebraska, with official dispatches in which he in- 
formed General Sheridan of the discovery of gold, and this scout carried the 
dispatch to the Bismarck Tribune, and by the Tribune was given to the Associated 
Press before it became public from any other source. 

As the result of these discoveries the Black Hills were invaded from every 
direction. The Government issued drastic orders and many trains loaded with 
mining outfits or supplies were destroyed by the military and many arrests were 
made, while other parties were destroyed by the Indians, for the Indians were 
enraged beyond endurance by this new act of bad faith. The miners were rapid- 
ly concentrating in the hills; among the Indians the young men inclined to war 
were concentrating in the Little Big Horn country. They were well armed 
and the immense herds of buffalo then in existence gave them abundant supplies, 
which they were unable to obtain at the agencies, notwithstanding the treaty 
obligations of the Government. 

The treaty of 1868, which provided for the Great Sioux reservation, also 
provided that certain supplies should be delivered to the Indians annually at 
their several agencies, along the Missouri River. At the Standing Rock agency 
there was an alleged enrollment of some 7.000 Indians. There was actually less 



V 



314 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

than half of that number. The winter of 1873-4 set in early and a large portion of 
their supplies were not delivered until the next spring, on account of the early 
closing of the Missouri River. And when delivered it is charged that they were 
stolen by the boat load; that a small portion of each cargo was delivered, but 
the whole receipted for, while the bulk went on up the river where it was dis- 
posed of to the traders or others. And it was charged that much of their regular 
supplies were disposed of in the same manner. 

It was apparent to any observer that, notwithstanding the liberal provisions 
made by the Government for the Indians, the Indians were suffering from hunger, 
and their attitude became constantly more threatening. There were other ugly 
rumors, which unfortunately proved to be true, that the traders were paying 
enormous tribute to persons connected with those in official position, and that the 
quota apportioned to each of the traders at Forts Buford, Lincoln and Rice, to be 
paid monthly, was $1,000, with lesser sums for the smaller posts. 

General Custer was a man of action and of high ideals, and believed in a 
square deal. These rumors, backed with absolute proof, reached him. He also 
believed that smuggling of arms and liquor was carried on to a great extent and 
that by this means also money was provided to pay the tribute exacted of the 
traders. The wife of the then Secretary of War was the beneficiary on the 
part of the military traderships, while one related to the President was sharing 
the profit from the Indian traderships. 

General Custer was instrumental in having Ralph Meeker sent out by a 
New York newspaper to report on this matter. He reported to General Custer. 
His mission was known to the writer of these pages, then editor of the Bismarck 
Tribune, and to James A. Emmons at Bismarck, who had previously flaunted 
the main facts in the face of the Secretary of War by means of a printed circular, 
when General Belknap was on an of^cial visit to Fort A. Lincoln. Meeker gained 
employment through General Custer at the Berthold Indian Agency, and thereby 
gained opportunity for interviews with a number of the Sioux whom he met 
there and at Fort A. Lincoln and Standing Rock. Custer was not backward in 
supplying Meeker the facts that had come to his attention, and the publication of 
the story resulted in the impeachment of Secretary Belknap, who resigned 
rather than have the facts, of which he was not wholly conscious, become a matter 
of record. 

The expose occurred in February, 1876. General Custer had been in Wash- 
ington arranging for the expedition and was on his way home when the matter 
became known. Congress immediately appointed an investigating committee. 

It was the custom then to close the Northern Pacific Railroad from Fargo 
to Bismarck for the winter. The Black Hills travel caused an attempt to open 
the road early that spring and on March 5th, a train left Fargo for Bismarck but 
was snow bound three weeks at Crystal Springs. Among the passengers on this 
train were General Custer and wife and .several officers of the Seventh Cavalry, 
a large number of recruits. Mayor McLean of Bismarck and Colonel Lounsberry 
who were returning from Washington, where they were on the floor of the 
House of Representatives and exhibited specimens of gold from the Black Hills. 
They were granted an audience by President Grant and Secretary Belknap, 
General Grant remarking, "that settles the question as to whether there is gold 
in the Black Hills." 



V 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 315 

William Budge, and a large party of miners from Grand Forks, were also on 
the train. General Custer and family left the train by team and on his arrival 
at Fort A. Lincoln he was summoned by telegraph to give testimony before a 
committee of Congress appointed to investigate the charges against Secretary 
Belknap. Some of his testimony gave offense to the administration and the 
plans for the Yellowstone expedition were changed, and Gen. Alfred H. Terry 
was assigned to the command of the expedition which left Fort A. Lincoln 
May 17, 1876. 

Custer was in command of his own regiment. Some of the companies were 
commanded by ofificers related to him by blood or other ties or intimate personal 
friends. 

Colonel Lounsberrj', who represented the New York Herald and the Asso- 
ciated Press through its St. Paul office, was the only correspondent who had se- 
cured authority to accompany the expedition, but sickness in his family at the 
last moment prevented his going and he chose Mark H. Kellogg to represent him 
on the expedition. On reaching the Rosebud, Custer's knowledge of the country 
became invaluable and he was ordered to take his regiment and locate the Indians. 
At an assembly of the officers June 22d, at dusk. General Custer stated that he had 
investigated as to the number of the hostiles through the Indian Bureau and other 
sources and he was satisfied that they would not find more than 1,000 to 1,500 
warriors. 

General Gibbon's command liad already reported to General Terry and had 
started up the left bank of the Yellowstone as Custer made camp at the mouth 
of the Rosebud on the right bank. 

General Custer's instructions from General Terry directed him to take trails 
and follow till he should ascertain definitely the direction in which they would 
lead, then report; if he found it leading to the Little Big Horn to still proceed 
south perhaps as far as the head waters of the Tongue River, the object bemg 
to locate the Indians and determine as accurately as possible all facts necessary 
to a successful prosecution of the campaign against them. General Terry avoided 
giving positive orders and left action to General Custer's discretion when so near 
the enemy. 

The information which had been forwarded by General Sheridan that the 
Indian agencies had been deserted by large numbers of Indians had not reached 
General Terry before the battle of the Little Big Horn. In locating the enemy 
Major Reno with three troops was assigned to the advance and ordered to attack, 
and advised that the whole command would support him. This was before reach- 
ing the ford and before General Custer divined the situation as it later appeared. 'J 
He gave these orders on first reaching the open valley, on seeing the Indian 
villages, expecting no doubt to follow Reno, considering the possible flight of the 
Indians south toward the mountains or northward into the Bad Lands, expecting 
only a running fight and that they would not m^ake a stand at their villages, expos- 
ing their women and children to direct attack. Such a conclusion would be in 
accord with all previous experience in Indian warfare. 

Custer's immediate command when the massacre occurred consisted of five 
companies, the others being appropriately assigned to other parts. Reno was 
put to flight. Custer attacked with the five remaining companies. 

The history of the battle has been written in the light of investigation and 



\ 



316 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA , 

research by Gen. E. S. Godfrey in the Century Magazine of January, 1892, 
and also by others after a thorough investigation of the subject. 

The matter which follows must be considered in the light of a narrative and 
as an evidence of enterprise in gathering and ptiblishing matter supposed to be 
facts, but in the confusion and excitement of the occasion, inaccuracy may have 
occurred in some particulars, though not in the list of casualties. 

\Mark Kellogg's last dispatch to the Bismarck Tribune read : "We leave the 
Rosebud tomorrow and by the time this reaches you we will have met and fought 
the red devils, with what result remains to be seen. I go with Custer and will be 
at the death."' 

He had written of the events of the expedition, of the preparation for the 
morrow, and of the incidents of personal interest, up to the very moment of 
marching, and, as was his custom, had his dispatches ready for the first depart- 
ing courier. He was personally known to many of the Indians and known to 
be their friend, and to be "the man who makes the paper talk." His body was 
found not mutilated in the slightest degree. His notes were gathered up and 
brought to Mr. Lounsberry without a missing page. Lieutenant Bradley, 
Seventh Infantry, was the first to reach "the field of carnage." 

Maj. James S. Brisbin of Gibbon's command filled a pass book with incidents 
as he saw them on the battlefield, the position and condition of the dead. There 
were no wounded in Custer's party. All were slain save the Crow scout Curley, 
who put on a Sioux blanket and managed to escape but completely dazed. Bris- 
bin's contribution was brought by Dr. H. R. Porter, with the request that it be 
given to the New York Herald. It was but a small part of the story as given to 
the Herald, and to the world through that great newspaper. Other papers had 
brief bulletins: The Herald had it all; their telegraph tolls amounting to some 
$3,000 for that single story sent by one newspaper correspondent. But every 
officer and every man was ready and anxious to assist in making the story 
\ , complete. When General Terry reached Bismarck he filed his official dispatches 
and at the same time notified Colonel Lounsberry, whom he caused to be fur- 
nished with an official list of the dead and wounded and with all possible facts. 
His staff officers were equally courteous. Dr. Porter. Fred Gerard and a score 
of others contributed to the story begun by Kellogg in his brief dispatch from 
the Rosebud. John M. Carnahan was the manager of the Bismarck telegraph 
office. S. B. Rogers was his able assistant. Here is absolutely the first account 
published July 6, 1876, as it came hot from the field of battle and dropped from 
the lips of those who saw the dead and participated in the affair with Reno or 
in other incidents of the expedition. And Grant Marsh, whose boat fairly skipped 
on the surface of the waters of the Missouri, coming down at the rate of twenty 
miles an hour, also contributed his mite to the story as published in the New 
York Herald, delayed in part one day in transmission from St. Paul 

The battle was June 25th. The Far West arrived at Bismarck at 11 P. M., 
July sth. Before her arrival there was uneasiness at Fort A. Lincoln. The 
expected courier did not come. There was reticence and strange actions on the 
part of the Indians in the vicinity. It was felt that they had heard some news 
or that they were contemplating an uprising, but no whisper of the great disaster 
was heard. Bismarck shared the anxiety of those at Fort A. Lincoln. Longing 
eyes were cast to the west in the hope that the expected courier might appear. 



\ 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 317 

From Salt Lake there came a rumor that a battle had been fought, but there 
were absolutely no details. When or where no one pretended to know. General 
Sheridan was most emphatic in his denunciation of the story. The first news 
that gave any information came from Bismarck, and the first publication, aside 
from a bulletin sent out by the Tribune which appeared in the New York Herald 
of July 6th, was in the Bismarck Tribune of that date. 

There were no Mergenthalers then. Composition was by the slow hand 
process and there were but two printers in town. They took the pages as they 
fell hot from the hand of one who was at the same time furnishing a 50,000 
word press report, who had only time to give them facts, and here is the account 
as it was then published, and it is indeed worthy of a place as it was then written, 
in the history of Dakota. 

MASSACRED. 



General Custer and 261 Men the Victims. 



No Officer or Man Left to Tell the Tale. 



Three Days' Desperate Fighting by Major Reno and the Remainder of the 

Seventh. 



Full Details of the Battle. 



List of Killed and Wounded. 



The Bismarck Tribune's Special Correspondent Slain. 



Squaws Mutilate and Rob the Dead. 



Victims Captured Alive Tortured in a Most Fiendish Manner. 



What Will Congress Do About It? 



Shall This Be the Beginning of the End: 



"We leave the Rosebud tomorrow and by the time this reaches you we will 
have 

Met and Fought 
the red devils with what result remains to be seen. I go with Custer and will be 
at the death." 

How true! On the morning of the 22d (it was at noon) General Custer took 
up the line of march for the trail of the Indians reported by Reno on the Rosebud. 
General Terry, apprehending danger, urged Custer to take additional men but 
Custer, having full confidence in his men and in their ability to cope with the 
Indians in whatever force he might meet them, declined the proffered assistance 
and marched with his regiment alone. He was instructed to strike the trail of 
the Indians, to follow it until tie discovered their position, and report by courier 



318 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

to General Terry (see note), who would reach the mouth of the Little Horn by 
the evening of the 26th, when he would act in concert with Custer in the final 
wiping out. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon of the 24th, Custer's scouts reported 
the location of a village recently deserted, whereupon Custer went into camp, 
marching again at 11 P. M., continuing the march until daylight, when he again 
went into camp for cofifee. Custer was then fifteen miles from the village located 
on the Little Horn, one of the branches of the Big Horn, twenty miles above its 
mouth, which could be seen from the top of the divide, and after lunch General 
Custer pushed on. The Indians By this time had discovered his approach and soon 
were seen mounting in great haste, riding here and there, it was presumed in full 
retreat. This idea was strengthened by finding a freshly abandoned Indian 
camp with a deserted tepee, in which one of their dead had been left, about six 
miles from where the battle took place. Custer with his usual vigor pushed on, 
making seventy-eight miles without sleep, and attacked the village near its foot 
with Companies C, E, F, I and L of the Seventh Cavalry, Reno having in the 
meantime attacked it at its head with three companies of cavalry which, being 
surrounded, after a desperate hand to hand conflict in which many were killed 
and wounded, cut their way to a bluft' about three hundred feet high, where they 
were reinforced by four companies of cavalry under Colonel Benteen. In gain- 
ing this position Colonel Reno had to recross the Little Horn, and at the ford the 
hottest fight occurred. It was here that Lieutenants Mcintosh, Hodgson and 
Doctor DeWolf fell; where Charley Reynolds fell in a hand-to-hand conflict with 
a dozen or more Sioux, emptying several chambers of his revolver, each time 
bringing down a redskin before he was brought down — shot through the heart. 
It was here Bloody Knife surrendered his spirit to the one who gave it, fighting 
the natural and hereditary foes of his tribe, as well as the foes of the whites. 

The Sioux dashed up beside the soldiers, in some instances knocking them 
from their horses and killing them at their pleasure. This was the case with 
Lieutenant Mcintosh, who was unarmed except for a saber. He was pulled from 
his horse, tortured and finally murdered at the pleasure of the red devils. It was 
here that Fred Gerard was separated from the command and lay all night with 
the screeching fiends dealing death and destruction to his comrades within a few 
feet of him and — but time will not permit us to relate the story — through some 
means succeeded in saving his fine black stallion in which he took so much pride. 

The ford was crossed and the summit reached, the bluff's, having. Colonel 
Smith says, the steepest sides that he ever saw ascended by a horse or mule, 
though the ascent was made under a galling fire. 

The companies engaged in this affair were those of Captains Boylan, French 
and Mcintosh. Colonel Reno had gone ahead with these companies in obedience 
to the order of General Custer, fighting most gallantly, driving back repeatedly 
the Indians who charged in their front, but the fire from the bluff was so galling, 
it forced the movement heretofore alluded to. Signals were given and soon 
Benteen with the four companies in reserve came up in time to save Reno from 
the fate with which Custer about this time met. The Indians charged the hill time 
and time again, but were each time repulsed with heavy slaughter by its gallant 
defenders. Soon however, they reached bluffs higher than those occupied by 
Reno, and opened a destructive fire from points beyond the reach of cavalry 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 319 

carbines. Nothing being heard from Custer, Colonel Weir was ordered to push 
his command along the bank of the river in the direction he was supposed to 
be, but he was soon driven back, retiring with difficulty. About this time the 
Indians received strong reinforcements, and literally swarmed the hillsides and 
on the plains, coming so near at times that stones were thrown into the ranks of 
Colonel Reno's command by those unarmed or out of ammunition. Charge after 
charge came in quick succession, the fight being sometimes almost hand-to-hand. 
But they finally drew ofi^, taking to the hills and ravines. Colonel Benteen charged 
a large party in a ravine, driving them from it in confusion. They evidently 
trusted in their numbers and did not look for so bold a movement. They were 
within range of the corral and wounded several packers, J. C. Wagoner among 
the number, wounded in the head, while many horses and mules were killed. 
Near lo o'clock the fight closed, and the men worked all night strengthening 
their breastworks, using knives, tin cups and plates in place of spades and picks, 
taking up the fight again in the morning. In the afternoon of the second day the 
desire for water became almost intolerable. The wounded were begging piteously 
for it. The tongues of the men were swollen and their lips parched, and from lack 
of rest they were almost exhausted. So a bold attempt was made for water. 
Men volunteered to go with canteens and camp kettles, though to go was almost 
certain death. The attempt succeeded, though in making it one man was killed 
and several wounded. The men were relieved and that night the animals were 
watered. The fight closed at dark, opening again the next morning, and contin- 
uing until the afternoon of the 27th. Meantime the men became more and more 
exhausted and all wondered what had become of Custer. A panic all at once was 
created among the Indians and they stampeded from the hills and from the valley, 
and the village was soon deserted, except for the dead. Reno and his brave band 
felt that succor was nigh. 

General Terry came in sight and strong men wept upon each other's necks 
but no word was had from Custer. Hand shaking and congratulations were 
scarcely over when Lieutenant Bradley reported that he had found Custer dead 
with 190 cavalrymen. Imagine the effect. Words cannot picture the feeling 
of these, his comrades and soldiers. General Terry sought the spot and found 
it to be true. Of those brave men that followed Custer, all perished. No one 
lives to tell the story of the battle. Those deployed as skirmishers lay as they 
fell, shot down from every side, having been entirely surrounded in an open 
plain. 

The men in the companies fell in platoons, and, like those on the skirmish 
line, lay as they fell, with their officers behind them in their proper positions. 
General Custer, who was shot through the head and body, seemed to have been 
among the last to fall, and around and near him lay the bodies of Colonel Tom and 
Boston, his brothers, Colonel Calhoun, his brother-in-law, and his nephew, young 
Reed, who insisted on accompanying the expedition for pleasure, Colonel Cook and 
the members of the non-commissioned staff all dead — all stripped of their cloth- 
ing and many of them with bodies horribly mutilated. 

The officers who fell were as follows : Gen. G. A. Custer, Cols. Geo. Yates, 



320 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Miles Keogh, James Calhoun, W. W. Cook, Captains Mcintosh, A. E. Smith, 
Lieutenants Riley, Critenden, Sturgis, Harrington, Hodgson and Porter, Assistant 
Surgeon DeWolf. The only citizens killed were Boston Custer, Mr. Reed, 
Charles Reynolds, Isaiah, the interpreter from Fort Rice, and Mark Kellogg, the 
latter the Tribune correspondent. The body of Kellogg alone remained unstrip- 
ped of its clothing, and was not mutilated. Perhaps as they had learned to respect 
the Great Chief, Custer, and for that reason did not mutilate his remains they 
had in like manner learned to respect this humble shover of the lead pencil and to 
that fact may be attributed this result. The wounded were sent to the rear 
some fourteen miles on horse litters, striking the Far West sixty odd miles up ) 
the Big Horn, which point they left on Monday, July 3, at noon, reaching Bis- 
marck, 900 miles distant, at 11 P. M., Wednesday, July 5. 

The burial of the dead was sad work, but they were all decently interred. 
Many could not be recognized ; ariiong the latter class were some of the officers. 
This work being done the command worked its way back to the base, where 
General Terry (his command) awaits supplies and approval of his plans for the 
future campaign. 

The men are worn out with marching and fighting, and are almost wholly 
destitute of clothing. 

The Indians numbered at least 1,800 lodges in their permanent camp, while 
those who fought Crook seemed to have joined them, making their effective 
fighting force nearly four thousand. These were led by chiefs carrying flags 
of various colors, nine of whom were found in a burial tent on the field of 
battle. Many other dead were found on the field, and near it ten squaws 
at one point in a ravine — evidently the work of Ree or Crow scouts. 

The Indian dead were great in number, as they were constantly assaulting 
an inferior force. The camp had the appearance of being abandoned in haste. 
The most gorgeous ornaments were found on the bodies of the dead chiefs and 
hundreds of finely dressed and painted robes and skins were thrown about the 
camp. The Indians were certainly severely punished. 

We said none of those who went into battle with Custer are living — one Crow 
scout hid himself in the field and witnessed and survived the fight. His story is 
plausible and is accepted, but we have no room for it now. The names of the 
wounded are as follows : 

Priv. Davis Corey, Company I, Seventh Cavalry, right hip; Patrick McDon- 
nall, D, left leg; Sergt. John Paul, H, back; Privts. Michael C. Madden, K, right 
leg; Wm. George, H, left side, died July 3, at 4 A.M. ; First Sergt. Wm. Heyn, 
A, left knee ; Priv. John McVay, C, hips ; Patrick Corcoran, K, right shoulder ; 
Max Wilke, K, left foot; Alfred Whitaker, C, right elbow; Peter Thompson, 
C, right hand; Jacob Deal, A, face; J. H. Meyer, M, back; Roman Rutler, 
M, right shoulder; Daniel Newell, M, left thigh; Jas. Muller, H, right thigh; 
Elijah T. Stroude, A, right leg; Sergt. Patrick Carey, M, right hip; Priv. Jas. E. 
Bennett, C, body, died July 5. at 3 o'clock : Francis Reeves, A, left side and body; 
James Wilbur, M, left leg; Jasper Marshall, L, left foot; Sergt. Jas. T. Riley, 
E, back and left leg; Priv. John J. Phillips, H, face and both hands; Samuel 




DR. HENRY R. PORTER 




CHARLES REYNOLDS 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 321 

Severn, H, both thighs; Frank Brunn, M, face and left thigh; Corp. Alex B. 
Bishop, H, right arm; Priv. Jas. Foster, A, right arm; W. E. Harris, M, left 
breast; Chas. H. Bishop, H, right arm; Fred Homsted, A, left wrist; Sergt. 
Chas. White, M, right arm; Priv. Thos. P. Varnerx, M, right ear; Chas. Camp- 
bell, C, right shoulder; John Cooper, H, right elbow; John McGuire, C, right 
arm; Henry Black, H, right hand; Daniel McWilliams, H, right leg. 

An Indian scout, name unknown, left off at Berthold ; Sergt. M. Riley, Com- 
pany I, Seventh Infantry, left off at Buford, consumption ; Priv. David Ackison, 
Company E, Seventh cavalry, left off July 4th at Buford, constipation. 

The total number of killed was 261 ; wounded 52. Thirty-eight of the 
wounded were brought down on the Far West ; three of them died en route. 
The remainder were cared for at the field hospital. 

De Rudio had a narrow escape and his escape is attributed to the noise of 
beavers, jumping into the river during the engagement. De Rudio followed 
them, got out of sight and after hiding for twelve hours or more finally reached 
the command in safety. 

The body of Lieutenant Hodgson did not fall into the hands of the Indians ; 
that of Lieutenant Mcintosh did, and was badly mutilated. Mcintosh, though 
a halfbreed, was a gentleman of culture and esteemed by all who knew him. 
He leaves a family at Lincoln, as do General Custer, Colonels Calhoun and 
Yates, Captain Smith and Lieutenant Porter. The unhappy Mrs. Calhoun loses 
a husband, three brothers and a nephew. Lieutenant Harrington also had a fam- 
ily, but no trace of his remains was found. We are indebted to Colonel Smith 
for the following full list of the dead ; to Doctor Porter for the list of wounded, 
which is also full. 



KILLED. 

FIELD AND STAFF 



Brevet Maj. Gen. George A. Custer; Lieut. -Col. W. W. Cook; Assistant 
Surgeon, — . Lord ; Acting Asst. Surgeon, J. M. De Wolf. 

NONCOMBATANT STAFF 

Surgeon Maj. W. W. Sharrow; Chief Trumpeter Henry Voss. 

COMPANY A 

Corporals Henry Dallans, G. K. King; Privates J. E. Armstrong, Jas. Drinaw, 
Wm. Moody, R. Rowline, Jas. McDonald, John Sullivan, Thos. P. Switzer. 

COMPANY B 

Second Lieut. Benj. Hodgson, Privates Richard Doran and Geo. Mask. 

COMPANY c 

Brevet Lieut. -Col. T. W. Custer; Second Lieut. H. H. Harrington (the body 
of Lieutenant Harrington was not found but it is reasonably certain that he was 
Vol. I — 21 



322 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

killed) ; First Sergt. Edwin Baba, Sergts. Finley and Finkle, Corps. French, 
Foley and Ryan ; Privates Allen, Criddle, King, Bucknell, Eisman, Engle, Bright- 
field, Fanand, Griffin, Hamlet, Hattisoll, Kingsoutz, Lewis, Mayer, Mayer, Phil- 
lips, Russell, Rix, Ranter, Short, Shea, Shade, Stuart, St. John, Thadius, Van 
Allen, Warren, Windham, Wright. 

COMPANY D 

Farrier Charley Vincent, Privates Patrick Golden and Edward Hanson. 

COMPANY E 

Brevet Capt. A. E. Smith, Second Lieut. E. Sturgis (the body of Lieutenant 
Sturgis was not found, but it is reasonably certain he was killed) ; First Sergt. 
F. Hohmeyer, Sergts. Egnen and James ; Corp. Hagan, Privates Snow and 
Hughes. 

COMPANY L 

First Lieut. Jas. Calhoun, Privates Miller, Tweed, Veller, Cashan, Keifer, 
Andrews, Crisfield, Harnington, Haugge, Kavaugh, Lobering, Mahoney, Schmidt, 
Lunan, Semenson, Riebold, O'Connell, J. J. Crittenden (Twentieth Infantry). 
First Sergts. Butler and Warren, Corps. Harrison, Gilbert and Seiller; Trptr. 
W'alsh, Privates Adams, Assdely, Burke, Cheever, McGue, McCarthy, Dugan, 
Maxwell, Scott, Babcock, Perkins, Tarbox, Dye, Tessler, Galvin, Graham, 
Hamilton, Rodgers. 

COMPANY K 

First Sergt. D. Winney, Sergt. Hughes, Corp. J. J. Callahan, Trptr. Julius 
Helmer, Private Eli U. T. Clair. 

COMPANY I 

Col. M. W. Keogh, Lieut. J. E. Porter (the body of Lieutenant Porter was 
not found, but it is reasonably certain he was killed) ; First Sergts. F. E. Yarden 
and J. Burtand ; Corps. John Wild, G. C. ]\Iorris and S. T. Staples ; Trptrs. 
J. M. Gucker and J. Patton; Blacksmith H. A. Bailey; Privates J. E. Broadhurst, 
J. Barry, J. Connors, T. P. Downing, Mason, Blorm. Meyer; Trptrs. McElroy 
and Mooney ; Privates Baker, Boyle, Bauth, Conner, Daring, Davis, Farrell, 
Hiley, Huber, Hime, Henderson, Henderson, Leddison, O'Conner, Rood, Reese, 
Smith 1st, Smith 2d, Smith 3d. Stella, Stafford, Schoole, Smalhvood, Tarr, 
Vaugant, Walker, Bragew, Knight. 

COMPANY F 

Capt. G. W. Yates ; Second Lieut. W. Van Rieley ; First Sergt. Kenney ; 
Sergts. Nursey, Vickory and Wilkinson ; Corps. Coleman, Freeman and Briody ; 
Farrier Brandon; Blacksmith Manning; Privates Atchison, Brown ist, Brown 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 323 

2d, Bruce, Brady, Burnham, Gather, Carney, Dohman, Donnelly, Gardiner, Ham- 
mon, Kline, Krianth, Luman, Losse, James Milton, Madson, Monroe, Ruddew, 
Omeling, Siefous, Sanders, Wanew, Way, Lerock, Kidey, E. G. DriscoU, D. C. 
Gillette, G. H. Gross, E. P. Holcomb, M. E. Horn, Adam Hitismer, P. Killey, 
Fred Lehman, Henry Lehman, E. P. Lloyd, A. Mclchargey, J. Mitchell, J. 
Noshaug, J. O'Bryan, J. Parker, E. J. Fitter, Geo. Post. Jas. Quinn, Wm. Reed, 
J. W. Rossberg, D. L. Lymons, J. E. Troy, Gharles Van Bramer and W. B. 
Whaley. 

COMP.\NY G 

First Lieut. Daniel Mcintosh ; Sergts. Edward Botzer and M. Considine ; 
Gapts. James Martin and Otto Hageman; Farrier Benjamin Wells; Trptr. 
Henry Dose; Saddler Grawford Selby; Privates Benjamin F. Rodgers, Andrew 
J. Moore, John J. McGinniss, Edward Stanley, Henry Seafferman and John 
Papp ; Gorp. George Lee ; Privates Julian D. Jones and Thomas E. Meador. 

COMPANY M 

Sergt. Miles F. O'Hara; Gorps. Henry M. Scollier and Fred Stringer; 
Privates Henry Gordon, H. Klotzbursher, G. Lawrence, W. D. Meyer, G. E. 
Smith, D. Somers, J. Tanner, H. Tenley and H. G. Voyt. 

CIVILIANS 

Boston Guster, Arthur Reed, Mark Kellogg, Charles Reynolds, Frank C. 
Mann. 

INDIAN SCOUTS 

Bloody Knife, Bobtailed Bull and Stab. 

Total number of commissioned officers killed 14 

Acting assistant surgeon i 

Enlisted men 237 

Civilians 5 

Indian scouts 3 

Note. — An officer of Custer's regiment penciled on the margin of this account 
the following: 

"Our march on June 24th was twenty-eight miles; leaving barracks at 11 
P. M., we marched eight miles ; halted at 2 A. M., 25th ; again marched at 
8 A. M. till 10:30 A. M. Then abput noon took up our march for the attack. 
Up to this time we had marched about forty-eight miles." 

DOCTOR porter's STORV 

On his return from the Custer battlefield in charge of the wounded Dr. Henry 
R. Porter, one of the surviving heroes of that expedition, though now called to 



324 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

his long home, gave a most interesting account of the battle of the Little Big 
Horn, so far as it related to Reno's command, and of the trip down the river 
with the wounded. The story written for the Sr. Paul Pioneer Press at the time 
by John A. Rea, the following extracts are made, speaking of Reno's command: 
"Lieutenant Mcintosh fell, and Charley Reynolds, the scout that Custer loved. 
Porter was beside a dying soldier. His orderly and supplies were gone, and the 
command was off several hundred yards. He was alone. The bullets were 
pruning the trees, and terrific yells were sounding the alarm of universal death. 
Porter left his lost patient and led his horse to the embankment that protected the 
woods. He was startled by Indians dashing by him within ten feet. They were 
rushing along the foot of the little bluff. Their aim was so direct in the line 
of Reno's flying battalion that Porter's presence was unnoticed. He was un- 
armed and his powerful black horse reared and plunged as if he were mad. 
Porter saw the fate that was in the immediate future if that horse escaped before 
he was on his back. He held on with superhuman strength. He could hold 
him but that was all. To gain the saddle seemed a forlorn hope. Leap after 
leap with the horse quicker than he. It was a brief ordeal, but in the face of 
death it was a terrible one. One supreme effort and half in the saddle the dusky 
charger bore away his master like the wind. He gained the full seat, and lying 
close upon his savior's neck, was running a gauntlet where the chances of death 
were a thousand to one. The Indians were quick to see the lone rider, and a 
storm of leaden hail fell around him. He had no control of his horse. It was 
only a half mile dash, but it was a wild one. The horse was frenzied. He 
reached the river in a minute and rushed up the bank where Reno had gone and 
was then recovering himself. The horse and rider were safe. It was destiny. 

''Porter's associate was killed and he was alone. The afternoon of the 25th, 
all night, throughout the 26th, the night of that date and the 27th, Porter worked 
as few men are ever called upon to work. He had no idea that he would get out 
alive, and believed every man around him was doomed. Still he was the same 
cool and skillful surgeon that he is today. He had a duty to perform that 
seldom falls to a man of twenty-six, and yet he performed it nobly. He was 
surrounded by the dead, dying and wounded. Men were crying for water, for 
help, for relief, for life. For twenty-four hours there was no water. The sun 
was blazing hot, the dead horses were sickening, the air heavy with a hundred 
smells, the bullets thick, the men falling and the bluffs for miles black with 
jubilant savages. 



A LIGHTNING STE.-\MBO.\T RIDE 

"The steamer 'Far West' was moored at the mouth of the Little Dig Horn. 
She was the supply boat of the expedition and had made her way up the Big 
Horn farther than any other boat. She had performed one exploit unprecedented 
in western river navigation in reaching the mouth of the Little Big Horn, and 
was ready to perform another feat unequaled in steamboating in the West. The 
wounded were carried on board the steamer and Doctor Porter was detailed 
to go down with them. Terry's adjutant general, Col. Ed Smith, was sent along 








-^' 


... • ; ;;■■'■'• ,>^^ 



STEAMER FAR WEST 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 325 

with the official dispatches, and a hundred other messages. He had a traveling 
bag full of telegrams for the Bismarck office. Capt. Grant Marsh of Yankton 
was in command of the 'Far West.' He put ever}'thing in the completest order 
and took on a large amount of fuel. He received orders to reach Bismarck as 
soon as possible. He understood his instructions literally and never did a river 
man obey more conscientiously. On the evening of July 3d the steamer weighed 
anchor. In a few minutes the 'Far West,' so fittingly named, was under full 
head of steam. It was a strange land and an unknown river. What a cargo on 
that steamer. What news for the country. What a story to carry to the Gov- 
ernment, to Fort Lincoln, to the widows. 

"It was running from a field of havoc to a station of mourners. The 'Far 
West' never received the credit due her. Neither has the gallant Marsh. Nor 
the pilots David Campbell and John Johnson. Marsh, too, acted as pilot. It 
required all of their endurance and skill. They proved the men of emergency. 
The engineer, whose name is unknown to me, did his duty. Every one of the 
crew is entitled to the same acknowledgment. They felt no sacrifice was too great 
upon that journey, and in behalf of the wounded heroes. 

"A very moderate imagination can picture the scene on that floating hospital. 

There were wounds of every character and men more dead than alive. The 

suffering was not terminated by the removal from the field to the boiler deck. 

It continued and ended in death in more than one instance before Fort Lincoln 

was hailed. Here again the son of N. Y. Mills, of the Empire state, was tested. 

Porter watched for the fifty-four hours. He stood the test. 

********** 

"The bold captain was taking chances, but he scarcely thought of them. He 
was under flying orders. Lives were at stake. His engineer was instructed to 
keep up steam at the highest pitch. Once the steam gauge marked a pressure 
that turned his cool head and made every nerve in his powerful frame quiver. 
The crisis passed and the 'Far West' escaped a fate more terrible than Custer's. 
Once a stop was made and a shallow grave explained the reason. Down the 
swift Yellowstone, like shooting the Lachine Rapids, every mile a repetition of the 
former! From the Yellowstone into the broad Missouri, and then there was 
clear sailing. There was a deeper channel and more confidence. A few minutes 
were lost at Buford. Everybody at the fort was beside himself. The boat was 
crowded with inquirers, and their inquiries were not half answered when the 
steamer was away. At Berthold a wounded scout was put ofif, and at Fort 
Stevenson a brief stop to tell in a word what had happened. There was no dif- 
ference in the speed from Stevenson to Bismarck. The same desperate gait was 
kept up to the end. They were approaching home with something of that feeling 
which always moves the human heart. At 11 o'clock on the night of July 
5th they reached Bismarck and Fort Abraham Lincoln. 

"Doctor Porter and Colonel Smith hurried from the landing up town, calling 
up the editor of the Tribune and the telegraph operator. The latter, J. M. 
Carnahan, took his seat at the key and scarce raised himself from his chair for 
twenty-two hours. He, too, was plucky, and what he sent went vibrating around 
the world in history." 

And the news was carried to the stricken families at Fort Lincoln. Imagine 
their grief, if you can; their sobs, their flood of tears. The grief that knew no 



326 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

consolation. The fearful depression that had hung over the fort for the past two 
days had its explanation then. It was almost stifling. Men and women moved 
anxiously, nervously straining their eyes for the expected messenger, listening 
as footsteps fell. There was whispering and excitement among the Indian police. 
There were rumors of a great battle. Those who saw the Indians and witnessed 
their movements knew that something unusual must have happened. But what? 
Who would not have given worlds to know just why all this excitement among 
the Indians. Fleet-footed warriors, mounted on still fleeter animals, aided per- 
haps by signals, had brought the news to them even before the arrival of the "Far 
West," but no white man knew. That it brought joy to them was reason enough 
for depression among the whites. 

A few more battles, a few more skirmishes, a treaty or two, and the Sioux 
warriors gave up the unequal contest. The superiority of the white man will 
never be acknowledged by the Indian, but he bows to the powers which have 
subdued him. 

INDIAN TREATIES 

At the very beginning of the life of the United States, it not only became its 
policy, but a necessity, to treat with the Indians. They contributed in no small 
degree to the success of the Revolution. The first formal treaty was with the 
Delawares, September 17, 1778, when all offenses or acts of hostility by one or 
either of the contracting parties were mutually forgiven and buried in the depths 
of oblivion, never more to be had in remembrance, and each agreed to assist the 
other if either should be engaged in war, the Delawares agreeing to furnish 
warriors for the then prevailing struggle. 

October 22, 1784, the United States gave peace to the Senecas, Mohawks, 
Onondagas and Cayugas, receiving them under its protection, requiring hostages, 
however, for the safe return of white and black prisoners held by the Indians. 
In 1785 treaties were made with the Wyandottes and Cherokees, and in 1786 
with the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Shawnee Indians; with the Creeks in 1790; 
with the five nations in 1792; with the Oneidas in 1794; with the seven nations in 
Canada in 1796; with the Sauk and Foxes in 1804, and with the Osage November 
10, 1808, the latter being the first of direct interest to the Dakotas. 

The next treaty bearing upon the Dakotas was with the Chippewas also in 
1808. It was made by Governor Hull, of Michigan Territory, on the part of 
the United States, and with the Chippewas, and other tribes northwest of the 
Ohio River, extending to the Great Lakes, the home of the Chippewas. 

William Clark, July 18, 181 5, made a treaty of peace and friendship with the 
Tetons, in which it was agreed that every act of hostility should be mutually 
forgiven and forgot, and perpetual peace and friendship was pledged ; the Tetons 
acknowledging the sovereignty of the United States. The next day a similar 
treaty was made with the "Sioux of the Lakes," and with the Yankton Sioux. 
Other treaties followed with the Osage and other tribes involved in the war of 
1812, William Clark, Ninian Edwards and Auguste Chouteau usually representing 
the United States. Many previous treaties, broken before or during the war, 
were replaced by others, and apparently a new era was entered. Other treaties 
followed, which have been mentioned in earlier chapters. 




CHAKLES CAVILEER 
First settler in North Dakota, 1851 




JEAN BAPTISTE BOTTINEAU 



I 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 327 

October lo, 1865, Governor Edmunds, of Dakota, concluded a treaty at Fort 
Sully with the Minneconjous, with a view of protecting the settlements in 
Dakota. Edward B. Taylor, Maj. Gen. S. R. Curtis, H. H. Sibley, Henry W. 
Reed and Orrin Gurnse acted with Governor Edmunds. This treaty provided 
for an overland route through the great Sioux reservation for which the Indians 
were to receive $10,000 annually for twenty years. The same parties negotiated 
a treaty at Uie same time with the Lower Brule band, the Sansarc, Uncpapa, 
Yanktonais and other Sioux bands for the same purpose. February 19, 1867, 
the Wahpetons and Sissetons ceded the right to construct wagon roads, telegraph 
Imes, etc. 

After the treaty of 1868, made with General Sherman and associates, that of 
1876 made by George W. Manypenny, Rt. Rev. Henry B. Whipple, Jared W. 
Daniels, Albert G. Boone, Henry W. Bullis, Newton Edmunds and Augustine S. 
Gaylord was next in importance. It was the good fortune of the writer of 
these pages to have been present at this treaty, to have heard the bitter com- 
plaints of the Indians and their pleas for justice, and to have witnessed their utter 
hopelessness, excepting as they had faith in Bishop Whipple and Newton Ed- 
munds, their tried and true friends. Here was an attempt in good faith to benefit 
the Indians. 

September 20, 1872, Moses N. Adams, William H. Forbes and James Smith, 
Jr., negotiated with Gabrielle Renville, head chief of the Sissetons, and others, 
for all of their lands in Dakota excepting certain restricted reservations at Lake 
Traverse and Devils Lake. This was amended May 2, 1873, and under that 
amended treaty all question was removed as to the title to certain lands in the 
Red River Valley, and the lands about Fargo became free public lands. 

In October, 1882, Hon. Newton Edmunds, Judge Peter C. Shannon and 
James H. Teller, negotiated a treaty with the Sioux at their various agencies in 
which they agreed to divide up their reservation and looking to the allotment of 
land in severalty. They were also to be provided with a farmer to instruct them, 
and with schools and other advantages. 

By the act of March 2, 1889, there were further changes made in the Sioux 
reservation, opening a small portion of the reservation in North Dakota, and 
confirming by law other portions. Allotments were provided for and citizenship, 
when they should take lands in severalty, and Indians were given preference for 
employment on reservation. 

The Turtle Mountain reservation was created by executive order of December 
21, 1882. Two years later it was limited by executive order to the two townships 
now occupied by them. July 13, 1892, a commission was provided for by act of 
Congress to treat with the Turtle Mountain band for their removal, and the 
extinguishment of the Indian title to lands claimed by them. The commission 
created under this act is known as the McCumber commission, and resulted in 
the payment of a large sum for their alleged rights to other lands. The two 
townships reserved for them by executive order, was wholly allotted to them, and 
other members of the tribe were provided for on other public lands, some of 
them settling in Montana, and others in the Missouri River region in North 
Dakota. 

In 1886, J. V. Wright, Jared W. Daniels and Charles F. Larabee, negotiated 
a treaty with the Berthold Indians, who relinquished a considerable portion of 



328 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

their reservation, and defining that remaining, providing for the allotment of 
lands, for rewards for industry, etc. This agreement was confirmed by act of 
Congress, March 3, 1891 (20 Stat. 1032). 

Wise and wholesome laws have been enacted for the government of the 
Indians, for protection of their persons and property ; for the education of their 
children; and in every possible way to uplift them. Lands claimed by them are 
protected from the encroachments of the whites, if they have any improvements 
on them of any value whatever, and the Government will incur any necessary 
expense in defending them. They are wards of the Nation. The act of Febru- 
ary 8, 1887, provides for their becoming citizens when they shall have selected 
land in severalty, throwing around them all of the guards pertaining to citizen- 
ship, and giving them all of its rights, while protecting their homes from aliena- 
tion for a period of twenty-five years. 

From the adoption of the Articles of Confederation it became the fixed policy 
of the United States to protect the Indians in their rights to the land occupied or 
claimed by them. By clause IX of the articles it was agreed that the United 
States, in Congress assembled, should have the sole and exclusive right and power 
of regulating the trade, and managing all afifairs with the Indians, not members 
of any of the states, provided that the legislative rights of the state within its 
own limits be not infringed or violated. 

By the proclamation of September 22, 1783, all persons were prohibited from 
making settlement on lands inhabited or claimed by the Indians, without the 
limits or jurisdiction of any particular state, and from receiving any gift or 
cession of such lands or claims, without the express authority and direction of the 
United States. The Constitution of the United States provided for the regula- 
tion of commerce with the Indians and for their care through its general 
provisions. 

The Indians were dealt with by treaty until the act of March 3, 187 1, which 
provided that no Indian nation or tribe within the territory of the United States 
shall be acknowledged or recognized as an independent nation, tribe or power, 
with whom the United States may contract by treaty, thus changing the policy 
which had prevailed since the treaty with the Delawares September 17, 1778. 

The only excepion to this rule was in the treatment of the Sioux after the 
Indian outbreak of 1862. The treaty with them was held to be void, their 
annuities were refused, but they were later provided for through the Great Sioux 
and other reservations. The United States claimed their lands by right of 
conquest. 

Some twelve hundred to fifteen hundred of the Wahpeton and Sisseton Sioux, 
who aided the whites during the outbreak, jeopardizing their lives to protect the 
whites, and to obtain possession of the white women and children made captives 
by the hostile bands, and another group of one thousand to twelve hundred, who 
fled to the plains, fearing the indiscriminate vengeance of the whites, were 
granted the fairest and best portion of North Dakota by the treaty of February 
19, 1867, the land so granted extending from Goose Creek to Watertown, S. D., 
conflicting, however, with the Chippewa cession extending to the Sheyenne. 
There were included in this grant the specific reservations of Lake Traverse and 
Devils Lake. By recent legislation that portion of the reservation not occupied 
by Indians has been opened to settlement, the settlers paying their appraised 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 329 

value, the money so paid being set aside by the Government for the benefit of 
the Indians. 

In the early cessions of lands by the Indians, covering the fertile regions of 
Iowa, South Dakota and Minnesota, lo cents an acre was regarded a fair price to 
pay for the lands, but under the treaty of 1876, the Sioux were allowed $1.25, 75 
and 50 cents per acre, depending upon the time of entry ; the Wahpeton and Sis- 
seton Indians were allowed $2.50 per acre for the Lake Traverse reservation and 
the Devils Lake Indians as high as $4.50 per acre for their lands. The Fort 
Berthold Indians were allowed $1.50 per acre for that part of their reservation 
surrendered, and have reason to e.xpect a much larger sum for the portion they 
are now asked to give up. The Yankton Sioux received $3.75 per acre for their 
reservation. Some of the Fort Berthold lands have sold at $6 per acre. 

The following recapitulation may be found of interest: The lands in North 
Dakota along the Red River were ceded by the Red Lake and Pembina bands 
of Chippewa Indians on October 2,- 1863 (13 Stat., 667), and on September 20, 
1872 (Rev. Stat., 1050), the Wahpeton and Sisseton Sioux ceded the remainder 
of the Red River Valley, and the country extending west to the James River and 
Devils Lake. 

By executive order of July 13, 1880, the country north of the Heart and 
south and west of the Missouri to a point about twelve miles west of Dickinson 
was restored to the public domain. A further portion of the Fort Berthold 
reservation was opened to settlement March 3. 1891 (26 Stat., 1032). The Lake 
Traverse reservation was opened to settlement March 3, 1891 (26 Stat., 1038) ; 
the Devils Lake reservation was restored by the President's proclamation of June 
2, 1904, under the act of April 27, 1904. The Standing Rock reservation was 
opened to settlement under the President's proclamation of August 19, 1909. 
The Great Sioux reservation, not included in special reservations, was disposed 
of under the act of March 2, 1889 (25 Stat., 888). 

The Fort Rice military reservation was turned over to the Interior Depart- 
ment by the War Department on July 22, 1884 ; the Fort Abraham Lincoln reser- 
vation was turned over to the Interior Department March 19, 1896; the Fort 
Stevenson reservation was turned over to the Interior Department February 12, 
1895, and the lands were sold at public sale October 2, 1901, under the act of 
July 5, 1884. The Fort Buford reservation was turned over to the Interior De- 
partment October 25, 1895, and disposed of under the act of May 19, 1900 (31 
Stat., 180). The Fort Pembina military reservation was turned over to the 
Interior Department November 27, 1895, and sold at public sale April 2, 1902, 
under the act of July 5, 1884, some of the lands bringing as high as $20 per acre. 
Fort Abercrombie reservation was opened to settlement by act of Congress July 
15, 1882, and Fort Seward reservation by act of Congress June 10, 1880. 



CHAPTER XXI I 
TRANSPORTATION DEVELOPMENT 

THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD, ITS HISTORY, PROMOTERS AND CONSTRUCTION 

BEGINNING OF AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT EXTENSIONS, BISMARCK AND 

OTHER TOWNSITES FORT ABRAHAM LINCOLN ESTABLISHED — THE GREAl 

NORTHERN RAILROAD — CONDITIONS CONTRASTED JAMES J. HILL's HISTORY OP 

THE GREAT NORTHERN ENTERPRISE JAMES J. HILL THE EARLY TRANSPORTA- 
TION INTERESTS OF THE RED RIVER VALLEY. 

March 3, 1853, Jefferson Davis, then secretary of war, and later president 
of the southern confederacy, procured the passage of a resolution by Congress 
authorizing him, as secretary of war, to make such explorations as he deemed 
advisable to ascertain the most practicable route for a railroad from the Missis- 
sippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Under this resolution three expeditions were 
organized, one to survey a southern, one a central, and the other a northern 
route. The eastern end of the northern route was placed in charge of Maj. 
Isaac I. Stevens, and the western in charge of Lieut. George B. McClellan, after- 
wards a distinguished LTnion officer during the War of the Rebellion, and in 1864 
the democratic candidate for President of the United States. At the time of 
his appointment Major Stevens was chairman of the national democratic committee 
and prejudiced against the northern route. 

Isaac Ingalls Stevens, a native of Andover, Mass., was a graduate of West 
Point, class of 1839. He was an adjutant on the staff of General Winfield Scott 
during the war with Mexico, 1847-48, and was severely wounded in the attack on 
the City of Mexico. When placed in charge of this route he had resigned from 
the army, and was appointed governor of Washington territory. He was delegate 
to Congress from that territory from 1857 to 1861, and at the outbreak of the 
War for the preservation of the Union re-entered the military service as a volun- 
teer, and was commissioned colonel of the Seventy-ninth New York Highlanders. 
He accompanied General William Tecumseh Sherman on the Port Royal Expe- 
dition of 1862, was promoted major-general July 4th of that year, and — dying at 
the age of 44 — on the ist September following fell at the battle of Chantilly, 
waving the flag at the head of his division. 

A southern route to the Pacific had long been a favorite scheme of the leading 
men of the south with a \iew to strengthening the predominating influence of 
that section in the National Government against possible northern development. 

Edwin F. Johnson, a distinguished engineer, who, as early as 1836, had pro- 
jected the Erie Railroad from New York to the lakes, and who had been con- 
nected with the construction of the Erie Canal, had accumulated much data from 

330 




MAX BASS 
Great Northern immigration agent. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 331 

army officers, traders and trappers in relation to the northern route. In 1852 
he was chief engineer of the Chicago, St. Paul & Fond du Lac Railroad, now 
the Northwestern, and Thomas H. Canfield of Burlington, \'t., was engaged on 
the work of building that line as a contractor. Mr. Johnson had previously inter- 
ested Mr. Canfield in a proposed Northern Pacific scheme. There was then no 
railroad entering Chicago from the East. The supplies for the construction of 
this new northwestern road were shipped by lake from Buffalo to Chicago. 

Li 1852 Mr. Johnson prepared an exhaustive treatise on the subject of a rail- 
road connecting the Mississippi with the Pacific Ocean, which he later published 
at the expense of Mr. Canfield and his partner. An extended map accompanied 
this publication and the advantages of a northern route over the central and 
southern route were clearly presented. Hon. Robert J. Walker, then secretary 
of the treasury of the United States, was a director of the Chicago, St. Paul & 
Fond du Lac Railroad, with which Johnson and Canfield were connected. Mr. 
Walker had seen the manuscript of the Johnson pamphlet and had so impressed 
Mr. Davis, associated with him in the cabinet, in relation to it, that Mr. Davis 
went to New York to secure information concerning it. He procured the manu- 
script and after reading it returned to New York and endeavored to convince 
Mr. Johnson that he was in error in giving preference to the northern route. 
I'^ailing in this, he procured the passage of a resolution by Congress authorizing 
the survey of the three routes. The appointment of Stevens and ^IcClellan to 
make the survey of the northern route was intended by him to settle the question 
in favor of the southern route. 

McClellan justified his expectation; Stevens did not. Stevens secured from 
President Pierce the appointment as governor of Washington and devoted the 
remainder of his life to presenting to the public the importance of the con- 
struction of the Northern Pacific Railroad, enlightening them as to the wonderful 
resources of the regions to be traversed by it. 

The panic of 1857 intervened, and in 1861 the War of the Rebellion. Result- 
ing from the war, the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad became a neces- 
sity, and the interests of the northern route were overshadowed by the greater 
public interests then demanding attention. The Union Pacific Railroad Company 
was incorporated by act of Congress July i, 1862. Lands were granted, and 
also a subsidy in bonds, in order to promote the construction of the road at the 
earliest possible date. July 2, 1864, the Northern Pacific Railroad Company was 
incorporated by act of Congress. It was granted lands to the extent of forty 
sections to the mile in the territories and twenty in the states, but a money 
subsidy was denied. July 27, 1866, the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Company 
was incorporated by a similar act of Congress and to it a like grant was made. 
A similar grant was made to the Southern Pacific, incorporated under the laws 
of California, and that company was authorized to connect with the Atlantic & 
Pacific and to extend its line to San Francisco. 

When the war broke out, in 1861. the control of the railroads by the Govern- 
ment became a military necessity. Thomas A. Scott of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road, afterwards the leading promoter of the Southern Pacific Railroad, became 
assistant secretary of war, and had particular charge of the movement of the 
armies by rail. He placed Thomas H. Canfield of Vermont in charge of the 
railroads about Washington, and to his management was in a large measure due 



332 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

the successful prosecution of the war. Canfield was one of the incorporators of 
the Union Pacific Railroad, but from the beginning had been a consistent and 
persistent advocate of the northern route and became one of its incorporators. 
Among the incorporators were M. K. Armstrong, J. B. S. Todd and J. Shaw 
Gregory of Dakota, and Cyrus Aldrich, H. M. Rice, John McKusic, H. C. Waite 
and Stephen Miller of Minnesota. 

Josiah Perham of Maine had been the leading character in securing the 
charter for the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Congress having 
denied a subsidy in money to aid in the construction, the charter was likely to fail, 
when the active services of Mr. Canfield were enlisted, and through his efforts a 
syndicate was formed consisting of J. Gregory Smith of St. Albans, Vt., presi- 
dent of the Vermont Central Railroad; Richard D. Rice of Augusta, Maine, 
president of the Maine Central Railroad; Thomas H. Canfield of Burlington, 
Vt. ; W. B. Ogden of Chicago, 111., president of the Chicago & Northwestern 
Railroad; Robert H. Berdell of New York, president of the Erie Railroad; Dan- 
forth N. Barney of New York, president of the Wells, Fargo & Co. Express 
Company; Ashel H. Barney of New York, president of the United States 
Express Company; Benjamin P. Cheney of Boston, president of the United 
States & Canada Express Company; Wm. G. Fargo of Bufifalo, N. Y., vice 
president of the New York Central Railroad and president of the American 
Express Company; George W. Cass of Pittsburgh, Pa., president of the Pitts- 
burgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad Company ; J. Edgar Thompson of Phila- 
delphia, Pa., president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and Edward 
Reiley of Lancaster, Pa., for the purpose of securing the construction of the 
road. Later a division of the above interests occurred by which Jay Cooke & 
Co., Charles B. Wright and Thomas A. Scott of Philadelphia, Frederick Billings 
of Woodstock, Vt., and William Windom and William S. King of Minnesota 
became identified with them, and to these men belongs whatever credit is due 
for carrying to successful completion this great enterprise. The agreement 
between the original twelve of these parties was signed January lo, 1867. An 
arrangement with Jay Cooke & Co. for financing the road was made by Messrs. 
Canfield, Smith, Ogden and Rice, in May, 1869, conditioned upon a favorable 
report of Mr. Cooke's representatives after a personal inspection of the route. 
Mr. Canfield took charge of the party, consisting of W. Milnor Roberts, engi- 
neer, Samuel Wilkinson, William G. Moorhead, Jr., Rev. Dr. Claxton and Wm. 
Johnson, a son of Edwin F. Johnson, for the exploration of the western end of 
the line. Mr. Smith and Mr. Rice conducted a similar party for the exploration 
of the eastern end. Both parties reported favorably and soon afterwards the 
work of construction commenced. 

In 1870 Mr. Canfield, accompanied by J. Gregory Smith, went to the line 
of the road and selected the crossing of the railroad at Brainerd, Minn., laid 
out the Town of Brainerd, planned for the location of the shops and located the 
Red River crossing at Fargo. Mr. Canfield returned the next spring and located 
Moorhead and Fargo, and in May, 1872, located the Missouri River crossing of 
the road and the Town of Bismarck, at first called Edwinton, in honor of Edwin 
F. Johnson, and later Bismarck, for the purpose of attracting German capital in 
the completion of the enterprise. 

The Southern Pacific Railroad interests, headed by Mr. Scott, bitterly antago- 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 333 

nized the construction of the Northern Pacific and on July i, 1868, the charter 
was saved through the influence of Hon. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania and 
Jacob M. Howard of Michigan by an amendment to the bill providing an exten- 
sion of time to the Northern Pacific Company. The charter would have expired 
the next day. 

Januar}' i, 1S72, the first rail was laid within the limits of North Dakota, 
the road having crossed the Red River at Fargo at that time. In June, 1873, it 
was completed to Bismarck, and ten years later the completion of the line was 
celebrated. Sitting Bull, who attacked the surveyors in June, 1873, when they 
attempted to extend the survey westward from Bismarck, and who attacked and 
destroyed Custer's cominand on the Little Big Horn in June, 1876, accompanied 
by many of his warriors, one of whom carried the United States flag in the pro- 
cession which welcomed General Grant and others at the laying of the corner- 
stone of the capital at Bismarck in September, 1883. 

Edwin F. Johnson conceived the idea of the construction of the Northern 
Pacific Railroad. At the office of Thomas H. Canfield, at Burlington, Vt., he 
planted the enthusiasm and aroused the energy in the breast of that young enthu- 
siast, which organized the forces and pushed the work to completion. It was 
largely Canfield's work which procured the charter; his work that saved it; his 
that organized the syndicate which finally built it, and his that enlisted Jay Cooke 
in the enterprise. He was personally identified with the location and upbuilding 
of all of the towns on the Northern Pacific east of the Missouri River during the 
days of construction. After the work was over he settled down to farming at 
Lake Park, Minn., and remained until his death a leading force in the develop- 
ment of the agricultural interests of the Northern Pacific region. 

The great financial concern of Jay Cooke & Co., which had negotiated the bulk 
of the Government loans during the Civil war, was forced into bankruptcy by 
reason of its connection with the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad, 
and the panic of 1873 resulted therefrom. The bonds of the Northern Pacific 
which had been so recently placed at nearly par fell to 8 cents on the dollar, 
sweeping away the fortunes of thousands who had invested their all in the securi- 
ties of the company. But their loss only led to the prosperity of others, for the 
bonds were picked up and converted into land and the land converted into farms. 
The leading spirits in the syndicate which constructed the road turned their atten- 
tion to the, development of the agricultural interests of the country through which 
the road was to pass. This was especially true of George W. Cass and P. B. 
Cheney, who were the promoters of the Dalrymple farms embracing not only the 
Cass and Cheney and the Dalrymple farms in Cass County, but the Grandin farms 
in Traill County. They furnished the means and pointed the way. Oliver Dal- 
rymple had the experience and the opportunity. He developed the farms. 

The rapid development of the Red River Valley led to the extension of the 
St. Paul & Pacific Railroad line, now known as the Great Northern, down the 
Red River Valley, and ultimately across the state and on to the Pacific Coast. 
The Black Hills gold excitement and the transportation connected with the Indian 
campaigns built up a thriving city at Bismarck, which had secured the location 
of the capital of the territory even before the completion of the Northern Pacific. 

The Lake Superior & Puget Sound Townsite Company was organized as a 
Northern Pacific auxiliary, and was supposed to embrace all of the available sites 



334 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

between Lake Superior and Puget Sound. Brainerd, at the crossing of the 
Alississippi, had yielded its harvest of gold to that company, and the crossing of 
the Red River and the Missouri were next in turn. 

A land office had been established at Pembina in 1870, and settlement was 
expected to rush for the fair land of the Red River Valley about to be opened. 
Only an Indian title remained to be extinguished. A few Scandinavians from 
Goodhue County, Minn., had gone ahead of the surveys, and had located on the 
Red River, the Maple and the Sheyenne. There were three or four at what is 
now Fargo. The land at Moorhead had been deeded and there was a stage 
station there kept by Maj. Wm. Woods. The land deeded at that point was 
owned by J. B. Smith, having been entered by him under the preemption act. 
The land at Fargo was not subject to entry, the Indian title not having been 
extinguished. An attempt, however, was made to enter by scrip. 

In 1869 it was the purpose of the Northern Pacific directors to cross the river 
at or near what is now Grandin, striking the Missouri River at the Big Bend, 
and following up that steam to Fort Benton. And in accordance with that plan 
the location of the bridge across the Red River was staked at Elm River, or 
Grandin, an4 a settlement of townsite speculators gathered at that point. The 
plan, however, was changed in the spring of 1870, and a fake line was staked to 
a point near Moorhead, known as Oakport. Here a bright little village of tem- 
porary structures sprang up. 

When the location of the crossing was definitely located Mr. Andrew Holes 
was employed to make settlement on the farm where James Holes long resided, 
and was dispatched to purchase the land embracing the townsite of Moorhead, 
which he succeeded in doing. In the meantime the several settlers were bought 
oflf at an expense of $1,000 to $1,500 each and on the night of June 25, 1871, 
George G. Beards'ey was engaged in making improvements on the several quarter 
sections which the townsite company intended to scrip, and J. B. Power, then a 
clerk in the surveyor general's office in St. Paul, was sent to Pembina to make the 
scrip locations for Fargo. 

By the 5th of July, 1871, the townsite settlers who had been watching oppor- 
tunity and the movements of the Puget Sound company people for a year or more 
had learned the facts and made a rush for Fargo. G. J. Keeney, Patrick Davitt, 
S. G. Roberts, Andrew McHench, Charles Roberts, J. Lowell, Harry Fuller, 
George G. Sanborn and others made homestead locations on the grounds which 
the townsite company had undertaken to scrip. The Indian claim having been 
extinguished later, it was held that the settlers had preference over the scrip 
locations, and the townsite company withdrew its claims, and left the settlers in 
undisturbed possession of the even sections, while the odd fell to them through 
the railroad grant. John E. Haggart, Newton Whitman and others filed on agri- 
cultural claims in the vicinity and became substantial farmers. James Holes 
secured the claim settled upon by Andrew Holes and became the first in North 
Dakota to engage in agriculture for a living. He opened up the first farm in 
North Dakota aside from the small tracts in the Pembina settlement or in connec- 
tion with the Hudson's Bay Company posts. 

Moorhead was named for W. G. Moorhead of the Northern Pacific directory, 
and Fargo for Hon. W. G. Fargo of the Wells-Fargo Express Company. 

At that time St. Paul had about fifteen thousand population and Minneapolis 




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^'^•^n^TTTf . 


...&,'i^X 








F I J--MW 




t^attitM^ ;^::j."3 



MAIN STREET, BISMAROv, 1872-3 
The place was then called Eihviiitou 




IXniAN TEAVOIS 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 335 

ten thousand, and it was believed that Moorhead and Fargo would make towns 
of equal importance. They were located by Thomas H. Canfield, as agent of the 
Puget Sound Company, aided by George B. Wright, a civil engineer in the employ 
of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and the point of crossing the river 
was determined by them. 

After Fargo attention was centered on the Northern Pacific crossing of the 
Missouri. John J. Jackman, who had been with the surveying party, knew the 
exact location of the proposed crossing. He induced James J. Hill to finance a 
scheme to obtain the townsite at that point. He formed a party consisting of 
himself, John H. Richards, George G. Sanborn, Emer N. Corey and Maj. ^^'illiam 
Woods, and they made a race for the location with the representatives of the 
Puget Sound Company, who had learned of their purpose. Jackman won, and 
settled on the claim selected for the townsite. The other parties took adjoining 
land, forcing the Puget Sound Company entirely away from the land they 
intended to enter. Other parties contested the location and some five years litiga- 
tion followed, resulting in the final entry of the land by the corporate authorities 
for the benefit of the occupants, and the Puget Sound Company was again 
defeated. As the result of a compromise the Northern Pacific Company agreed 
to establish their shops at Bismarck, but failed to make good their contract. 

On reaching the Missouri River a false line crossing that stream at the mouth 
of the Heart River was located. Camp Greene had been established on the west 
side of the Missouri River by the militarj' authorities ; on the east side, at "Pleas- 
ant Point," opposite Camp Greene, a thriving little city was built called Carleton 
City, which continued as a place for saloons and worse institutions for some years, 
to catch the soldier trade from Fort A. Lincoln, which was subsequently estab- 
lished. 

To further mislead as to the proposed location of the crossing of the Missouri 
River, the road was actually graded to a place called Burleigh City, nearly a mile 
south of Bismarck, and graded some distance on the flat because Doctor Burleigh's 
contract called for grading to the Missouri River. 

In 1873 the grade was changed to follow the bench and the road was completed 
to the point where eight years later the road crossed the ^Missouri River. 

Bismarck was surveyed in the interest of the Lake Superior & Puget Sound 
Townsite Company in May, 1872, and in order to make sure of holding the prop- 
erty they employed, through George W. Sweet, attorney, men to make location on 
then unsurveyed public land. The plat was filed February 9, 1874, in the office 
of the register of deeds in Burleigh County. 

Soon after the survey was commenced, and before its completion, Sweet, as 
the agent of the said company, commenced to sell lots by the numbers indicated 
upon the plat filed, a certified copy of which is presented in the case. The parties 
purchasing immediately commenced the erection of buildings upon their lots, for 
dwellings and business purposes. 

On the 1st of January following thirty buildings had been erected upon the 
' site so selected, and were then occtipied. During the year 1873 about one htmdred 
buildings of variotis kinds were built. The population steadily increased, build- 
ings continued to be erected until, at the date of the hearing before the local 
ofificers, JMay 15, 1875, the number of inhabitants of said city was estimated at 



336 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

nine hundred, and the improvements made were valued at from one to two hun- 
dred thousand dollars. 

October 27, 1874, John Bowen, probate judge of Burleigh County, filed a 
declaratory statement for the N. 3^2 of said section 4, in trust for the use and 
benefit of the inhabitants of the City of Bismarck. 

January 14, 1875, said city was duly incorporated by an act of the Legislature 
of Dakota Territory, and the following described tracts were included in its 
corporate limits, to wit : The N. W. ^ and the W. y^ of the N. E. J4 of section 4, 
the N. Yz of section 5, and that portion of section 6 which lies east of the Missouri 
River, T. 138 N., R. 89 W., the N. y2 of section 31, lying east of said river, and 
all of the S. ^2 of sections 32 and 33 of T. 139 N., R. 80 W., in said territorj-. 

May 15, 1875, John A. McLean, mayor of the City of Bismarck, made an 
application at the local office to enter, in behalf of the inhabitants of said city, 
the N. W. 54 and W. >^ of N. E. >4 of section 4, N. E. 54 of N. E. 54 of section 
5, T. 138 N., R. 80 W., and the S. >4 of S. E. 54 and S. /, of S. W. >4 of section 
32, T. 139 X'., R. 80 W., Dakota Territory. 

This application was objected to by Edmund Hackett et al., on the ground 
that they have rights to said tracts by reason of their preemption settlements 
thereon and for other reasons. 

Assistant Secretary Chandler, before whom the townsite case went on appeal, 
in closing his review of the case, held : 

I am of the opinion that where a specific tract of land is designated and 
chosen, a part of which is suneyed into lots, blocks and streets, which, together 
with its exterior boundaries, are marked by stakes of proper monuments, and 
said acts are followed by settlement, improvements and occupation within a 
reasonable time, such tract must be considered as selected within the meaning of 
the law, and thereby excluded from preemption filing. 

I am also of the opinion that this selection may be made before or after actual 
settlement, and by persons associated together for that purpose, or drawn 
together by a common interest. 

Before entry can be made of the land, it must appear that the selection was 
made in good faith, not for the purpose of speculation, and has been settled upon 
and occupied for purposes of trade, and not agriculture. 

The site of the present City of Bismarck was selected because it was antici- 
pated that at this point the Northern Pacific Railroad would cross the Missouri 
River. To this fact is to be attributed its rapid growth ind development. 

On this account, the parties who now claim, as preemptors, the lands upon 
which this city is built, were attracted there. They were fully cognizant of this 
fact when their settlements and improvements were made. You very properly 
rejected the entries of Hackett and Proctor, each of whom purchased, or con- 
tracted to purchase, lots of the L. S. & P. S. L. Co., after the survey was com- 
menced or completed, and before they made settlement upon the tracts now 
claimed by them. 

The fact that said company sought by illegal means to obtain title to the tract 
originally selected by it as a townsite in no way affects the rights of the occupants, 
in whose behalf application is now made to enter said land. 

They made their settlement and improvements in good faith, and are entitled 
to the protection which the law provides. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 337 

The corporate authorities having included more land in their application than 
was originally selected as a townsite, the question arises as to what lands they 
are now entitled to enter for that purpose. I am of the opinion that their entry 
must be limited to such contiguous tracts as were included in their corporate 
limits, and at the date of incorporation were free from valid claims under the 
preemption or homestead laws. By the act of incorporation, the authority of the 
probate judge to act for and in behalf of the occupants of said townsite was 
superseded by the officers therein named, when qualified. 

Neither the act of incorporation nor the application of the corporate authori- 
ties includes the E. ^ of the N. E. J4 of section 4, a part of the tract originally 
selected. This tract is therefore excluded from said townsite. Valid rights had 
attached to the N. E. % of N. E. J4 of section 5, township 138 N., range 80 W., 
and the S. Y^ of S. E. 34 ^nd the S. Yz of S. W. Ya of section 32, township 
139 N., range 80 W., at the date of the incorporation of said city, and not being 
originally selected as a part of said townsite, were improperly included in the 
application of the corporate authorities, and will be awarded to the parties entitled 
therein. The corporate authorities will therefore be restricted in their entry to 
the N. \V. '4 and the W. J/2 of the N. E. Ya of section 4 aforesaid, subject to the 
right of way of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. These are the only 
tracts which can properly be considered as settled upon and occupied for- townsite 
purposes under the testimony as presented, and are awarded to the corporate 
authorities of said city. 

I have carefully considered the testimony as to the rights of the respective 
claimants to the other tracts included in the application of the corporate authori- 
ties, and those included in this contest, and am of the opinion that they should 
be awarded to the parties hereinafter named, upon their showing full compliance 
with the law, and hereby direct that the awards be so made, and that all other 
filings and entries on said tracts, and those awarded to the corporate authorities, 
be canceled. 

The E. 5j of the N. E. J4 of section 4, township 138 N., range 80 W., to 
Erastus A. Williams. 

The N. E. Ya of N. E. Ya of section 5, township 138 N., range 80 W., to the 
Northern Pacific R. R. Co. 

The S. W. Ya of section 32, township 139 N., range 80 W.. to J- J. Jackman. 

The N. Y2 of the S. E. J4 of section 32, township 139 N., range 80 W., to 
John Plummer. 

The S. Y^ of the S. E. Ya of section 32, township 139 N., range 80 W., to 
Dennis Hannefin. 

FORT ABRAH.\M LINCOLN ESTABLISHED 

On July 2, 1864, Congress passed an act granting right of way through the 
Indian country to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, entitled "An Act 
granting lands to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from 
Lake Superior to Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast, by the northern route." 

In 1871 orders were sent from the headquarters of the Department of Dakota 

to Col. David S. Stanley, commanding at Fort Rice, to fit out an expedition to 

accompany the engineers of the proposed railroad on a sun^eying tour to the 
Vol. I — 22 



338 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Yellowstone River. In accordance with these orders troops began to concentrate 
at the fort, and on September 6, 1871, the engineering party, under military escort, 
arrived overland from Fort Abercrombie. They were Gen. Thomas L. Rosser, 
assistant chief engineer, accompanied by Messrs. Meigs and Eastman, and several 
surveyors and their assistants. 

On the morning of September 9, 1871, at 9 o'clock, the expedition left Fort 
Rice and wound out over the hills, the regimental band escorting the column to 
the foot of the hills. The military escort consisted of 500 men, a detachment of 
artillery with two Catling guns, fifty movmted Indian scouts under command 
of Lieutenant Turnock, and a train of 100 wagons, the whole under command of 
General Whistler, Twenty-second Infantry. 

The first courier from the expedition arrived at Fort Rice on October 14, 1871, 
and on the day following all the troops returned and went into camp outside the 
fort, except Company D of the Seventeenth, under Captain Clarke, and the engi- 
neering party who marched on down the Little Heart River to its mouth, in order 
to ascertain the advantages afforded by that point of crossing. On the afternoon 
of the 17th they were met and escorted into the fort by the post band. The engi- 
neers reported that the expedition had been a great success. That the route 
surveyed from the Little Heart River to the Yellowstone was practicable, and 
that the railroad would be built. The day ended with a grand military ball, given 
by the ladies of the fort, in honor of the civilian and military guests. 

The spring of 1872 brought much work to the troops at Fort Rice in the way 
of similar expeditions on a small scale. Company after company was detailed to 
act as escort to the engineers who were engaged in running new lines of survey to 
the westward. This duty was extremely dangerous, as the Sioux, believing that 
these proceedings were in violation of treaty obligations, lost no opportunity to 
attack the expeditions. 

In April, 1872, a supply camp was established for the convenience of the 
engineers — some three miles below the site of Fort Abraham Lincoln, at the mouth 
of the Little Heart River. The new post was christened Camp Greene, and 
K Company of the Seventeenth, under command of Lieutenant Greene, with 
Lieutenant Cairns and Doctor Slaughter as post surgeon, were sent up from Fort 
Rice to occupy the post. It was then thought that Camp Greene was to be the 
permanent post, then designed to be built at the crossing of the Missouri River 
by the railroad ; but the following order establishing Fort A. Lincoln was soon 
afterwards issued from department headquarters: 

Headquarters Department of Dakota 

St. Paul, April 16, 1872. 
.S]5ecial Orders No. 65. 

A board of officers is hereby appointed to select and recommend for adoption 
a site for the location of a new post to be constructed on the west bank of the 
Missouri, at or in the immediate vicinity of the point where the Northern Pacific 
Railroad will cross the river. 

Detail for the board — Col. D. S. Stanley, Twenty-second Infanty; Capt. J. W. 
Scully, A. Q. M., U. S. A. ; Capt. D. W. Heap, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A. ; 
Acting Assistant Surgeon B. F. Slaughter, U. S. A. 




COLONEL HARRY BROWNSON AND CLERKS, BISMARCK AGENT, 

NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD, 1873. COLONEL 

BROWNSON SEATED 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 339 

EXTENSION OF THE NORTHERN PACIFIC WEST FROM FARGO 

The extension of the Northern Pacific Railroad west of the Red River of the 
North was begun in the early months of 1872, and was completed to the Missouri 
River June 5, 1873. Colonel William B. Gaw, die engineer in charge in 1872, 
told a representative of the road: "I have got the longest straight line of road 
in the world; I begin at the Red River and run west, four degrees north, fifty- 
four miles without a curve." 

On September 18. 1873, the Northern Pacific Railroad Co., failed, and its bonds, 
which were receivable at par in payment of lands within its land grant, forty miles 
north and forty miles south of its track, steadily sank in price until they touched 
8 cents on the dollar. The building of the road in 1872, gradually attracted the 
attention of immigrants and a steady wave began to cross the Red River. They 
made preemption, homestead and timber culture claims on the Government sec- 
tions both north and south in the land grant limits. At the same time, holders of 
bonds of the road bought the lands in the same limits and many farms of large 
and small dimensions were opened and worked, and in the fall of 1878 all the 
land as far west as range 55 was bought. Many selections had been made in 
ranges 56, 57 and 58, in Barnes County, and others steadily pressed westward 
through the ranges until the James River in range 64 was reached in 1879. Large 
bodies of lands were bought of the road by non-resident holders of its bonds. 
Among those may very properly be named Governor Abner Cobum and his 
brother, of Maine; Cooper Brothers, Henry and William Lloyd, of Pennsylvania; 
Williams, Deacon & Co., of London, and many others, including Pence and Snyder, 
of Minneapolis, who bought large tracts in what is now Foster and Ransom 
counties, respectively the northern and southern limits of the grant. Immigrants 
also from the eastern states pressed in and settled on the Government sections 
from the northern to the southern limits, and Addison Leech, Mr. Plath, W. W. 
Mcllvain, D. H. Buttz, his brother John and M. L. Engle bought lands of the 
road in Cass and Ransom counties and began to cultivate them. Large numbers 
of others also besides those named did so. 

In 1880 the Fargo & Southwestern Railroad was built from Fargo to the 
James River, eighty-eight miles, and LaMoure was made its terminus, while 
Davenport, Leonard, Sheldon, Lisbon and Englevale became thriving centers along 
its route. A year later, in 1881, the Jamestown & Northern was built to a point 
in Foster County forty-three miles north. Carrington was platted and rapidly 
grew into a thriving town while Pingree, Edmunds and Melville along its route 
became trade and postoffice centers for districts near them. Many farms were 
opened by men who bought lands of the road and others secured claims on Gov- 
ernment sections and have lived there since ; Wm. M. and Wm. A. Bartholomew, 
James Buchanan, Murphy Brothers, Wm. Farquhar and many others, while the 
Casey & Carrington Land Company opened up its farm, quite as large and 
important as any other large farming interest in the state. 

In 1883 the Sanborn, Cooperstown & Turtle Mountain Road was built to a 
point thirty-six miles north, where Cooper Brothers had bought from the road a 
large body of lands, and Cooperstown sprang into existence and became the 
county seat of Griggs County. The same rapid settlement followed along this 
route. Odell, Dazey and Hannaford became centers of traffic. In 1882 the 



340 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

James River Valley Road from Jamestown to LaMoure was built and by short 
extensions met the C. & N. W. and C, M. & St. P. railroads which had built 
from the south, and a spur track was built from Carrington to Sykeston, where 
Mr. Richard Sykes had bought lands and opened several large farms in Wells 
County. All these roads bearing separate corporate names were built as branches 
of the Northern Pacific and were projected by the impulse given by the rapid 
influx of immigrants that followed the settlement and cultivation of the lands 
along the main line in 1879-80. 

The wave of immigration spent its force in the spring of 1883, and some 
idea of its extent may be formed from the following figures of Stutsman, Foster, 
Wells and Eddy counties, and equally strong, if not yet stronger figures could be 
given of the counties along the lines of the other branches if they were at hand, 
as the wave swept steadily and evenly over the rolling prairies west of the Red 
River Valley. In the census of 1880, the County of Stutsman had a population of 
1,007; of *^his number Jamestown had 392. In the census of 1885 the county 
had 5,632, and of these Jamestown had 2,382. 

In 1880 the present counties of Foster, Wells and Eddy had not over twenty- 
five settlers within their borders. In the census taken in 1885 these three counties 
had a population of 1,932. In 1880 there were no farms worked in these three 
counties. In 1885 there were 392. Some of them, notably those of Carrington & 
Casey and Richard Sykes were large ones, the rest varied from 160 to 640 acres. 

The class of settlers who fonned the wave that culminated in 1883, were 
generally of an excellent quality. The states of Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, 
Wisconsin and Iowa furnished a good share of those from the eastern states. 
Many came from Canada, some from England and Scotland. Many townships in 
all the counties forming the James River Valley received colonies from Poland, 
others from Sweden, Norway and Denmark. 

THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILRO.\D 

Following the grant of land to the three Pacific railroads, Congress granted 
to the State of Minnesota ten sections of land per mile to aid in the construction 
of certain lines of railroad in that state, including the main lines of the Great 
Northern Railroad. The state had also granted certain swamp lands and a sub- 
sidy in bonds to aid in the construction. After the construction of the main line 
to Breckenridge, which it reached in October, 1871, beating the Northern Pacific 
in the race for the Red River Valley by 2J-2 months, and the construction 
of the St. Cloud line to Sauk Rapids, which it reached in 1865, the road 
became bankrupt and passed into the control of a syndicate organized by James 
J. Hill, to whom the grant was finally transferred by the State of Minnesota. 
The construction of the St. Cloud line was commenced in 1862, when ten miles 
was built from St. Paul to Minneapolis, and it was completed to Sauk Rapids in 
1865. The Breckenridge line was commenced in 1867 and was completed, as 
stated, to Breckenridge in October, 1871. The St. Cloud line was extended from 
Barnesville to Fisher's Landing in 1877, and December 2, 1878, the track layers 
joined the rails of the Canadian Pacific, giving a through line to Winnipeg, the 
connection having been made from Breckenridge to Barnesville. In 1880 the road 
was extended from Crookston to Grand Forks, and from thence on west to the 




Photo by Siven, .\liiH.r,.|.. 



VIEW OF IVnNOT IN 18S7 



fc -■.-.■." .>.*....i ft'rL. -..-^"^ 



T^i Si. 



i^:~.-A 




VIEW OF MINOT IN 1893 
A settlement of tents 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 341 

Pacilic Coast by successive stages. This system was at first known as the St. 
Paul & Pacific, then as the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba, taking its present 
name, The Great Northern, in i8go. 

The land grant of the Northern Pacific doubled when the road crossed the 
Red River; that of the Great Northern ceased when the road left the limits of 
Minnesota. The Northern Pacific pushed rapidly westward, relying upon its 
through traffic to build up its business and take care of its bonded indebtedness ; 
the Great Northern relied upon the resources of the country, building spurs and 
branch lines, reaching out for business, sending out agents to bring in people to 
possess the land. Practically all of the lands along its line were free lands, 
while half of the lands along the Northern Pacific were not subject to homestead 
entry. In the early days the Northern Pacific was built and operated with reck- 
less extravagance ; the Great Northern was noted from the beginning for its 
economical administration, and since its management passed into the hands of 
James J. Hill, who developed and built up its several systems, it has had no set- 
liack of any nature, and today the stocks of that company are quoted higher 
than any other stocks of any class on the market, the New York quotation being 
for Saturday, November lo, 1906, 322J/2 ; in railroad stocks the Northern Pacific 
stood next, at 220, higher than any other, excepting the Great Northern alone. 
The Northern Pacific has done much for the development of the country through 
which it passes ; the Great Northern has done more. 

The Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railroad, more familiarly 
known as the "Soo," has also done much for the development of North Dakota. 
Its lines, too, were extended without a bonus and without a land grant, and 
were pushed in competition with the Great Northern to almost all parts of the 
state. They have been extended through the southern part to the capital and on 
north to the coal fields, and from the southeastern portion diagonally across the 
state, and from the east to the western part through the northern counties, enter- 
ing upon a rivalry with the Great Northern, born of the rivalry which has always 
existed between St. Paul and Minneapolis, the leading spirits of the Soo residing 
at Minneapolis, while the home of James J. Hill was at St. Paul, where he began 
life as a humble clerk. 

HISTORY OF THE GRE.AT NORTHERN RAH-ROAD 

On retiring from the chairmanship of the directory of that company in 1912, 
James J. Hill, in a letter to his associates, states the facts relative to the work 
of the syndicate organized by him for the purchase of the Great Northern 
system, from which the following extract is made : 

"My associates were George Stephen, now Lord Mount Stephen; Donald A. 
Smith, now Lord Strathcona, and Norman W. Kittson. We bought the defaulted 
bonds of these properties from the Dutch holders. The agreement with the 
Dutch committee was executed March 13. 1878, and practically all outstand- 
ing indebtedness was subsequently secured. The mortgages were afterwards 
foreclosed and the property was bought in. For those days it seemed a formid- 
able financial undertaking. The stock of these companies aggregated $6,500,000, 
and their bonded indebtedness with past due interest nearly $33,000,000, aside 
from floating obligations. These had to be purchased at prices above those for 



342 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

which they had previously been offered in the open market. The total capital- 
ization and indebtedness at that time of the companies taken over was approx- 
imately $44,000,000. 

"The property secured consisted of completed lines from St. Paul via St. 
Anthony to Melrose, a distance of 104 miles, and from Minneapolis to Breck- 
enridge, a distance of 207 miles ; and of two projected lines, one from Sauk 
Rapids to Braincrd and one from Alelrose to the Red River at St. Vincent, 
on the international boundary line. On these latter some grading had been done 
and abotit 75 miles of track had been laid. There were gaps between Melrose 
and B'arnesville, Crookston and St. Vincent that must be filled quickly. In them- 
selves, had it not been for the promise of the future, these were scattered tracks 
in a country just being settled, out of which to construct a railway system and 
on which to base the financing of their purchase and development. 

"We advanced the money to build the Red River Valley Railroad, fourteen 
miles of track from Crookston to Fisher's Landing, on the Red River, making 
a through route by steamboat- from that point to Winnipeg. While negotiations 
were pending and also after they were concluded, but before possession could 
be secured through the foreclosure of mortgages, an immense amount of work 
had to be done. The extension from Melrose to Barnesville must be pushed, 
and was carried thirty-three miles, as far as Alexandria, and ninety miles were 
built in the Red River \'alley to reach the Canadian boundary. The former 
was necessary to save the land grant, whose time limit, already extended, was 
about to expire. The latter was in addition to connect with a railroad projected 
by the Canadian government from Winnipeg south. As the properties were still 
in the hands of a receiver, an order had to be obtained from the court for the 
completion of the work in ]\Iinnesota with funds furnished by us. Money had 
to be raised to build these lines and to furnish equipment necessary for their 
operation. 

"In May, 1879, the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway Company 
was organized to take over all these properties, whose bonds had been largely 
purchased, whose stocks had been secured and whose assets were to be bought 
in under foreclosure. It had an authorized capital stock of $15,000,000, limited by 
its charter to $20,000,000, and made two mortgages of $8,000,000 each. George 
Stephen was made first president of the company, Richard B. Angus, vice pres- 
ident, and I was chosen general manager. This placed upon me the practical 
conduct of the enterprise from its formal inception. 

"The lines of the new system turned over to our possession on June 23, 1879, 
comprised a mileage of 667 miles, of which 565 were completed and 102 under 
construction. From the beginning its business fulfilled the expectations of its 
founders. The annual report for 1880 showed an increase in earnings of 54 
per cent, and had sales amounting to $1,200,000. And now began the long task 
of building up the country. No sooner was a mile of road finished than the 
need of building other miles became apparent. Before Minnesota had filled up 
the tide of immigration was passing even the famous Red River Valley country 
and flowing into Dakota. By 1880 it had become necessary to add a line down 
the Dakota side of the Red River to plan for many extensions and branches, 
and two local companies, building lines in Western Minnesota, were purchased. 
"Only a detailed history of the railroad could follow step by step the progress 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 343 

of track extension and the financial arrangements by which capital was fur- 
nished for these constant and always growing demands from this time on. In a 
brief review, such as this, I can call attention only to what may fairly be called 
points of historic interest in the growth of what is now the Great Northern 
System. One of these was the provision of an eastern outlet by way of the 
Great Lakes. An interest was obtained in the St. Paul & Duluth Railroad Com- 
pany in 1881. This, with the building of the link from St. Cloud to Hinckley, 
gave the necessary access to the Great Lakes, until the organization of the East- 
ern Minnesota in 1887 as a subsidiary company furnished a permanent outlet 
and terminals. I was made vice president of the company November i, 1881, 
and on August 21, 1882, succeeded to the presidency, a position whose duties I 
was to discliarge for a quarter of a century. Mr. John S. Kennedy, who had 
joined our party after the organization of the company, was elected vice pres- 
ident. At no time have I accepted any salary for my services as president or 
chairman of the board of directors, since I have felt that I was sufficiently com- 
pensated by the increase in the value of the property in which my interest has 
always been large. 

''Business now grew more and more rapidly, the Northern Pacific was about 
completed and the Canadian Pacific was building toward the coast. The St. 
Paul & Pacific Railroad was originally, as its name implied, intended as a trans- 
continental line. The route to be traversed was rich in fertile soils and abun- 
dance of mineral and forest resources. Quite as important, perhaps, was the 
fact that it admitted of the construction of a line with grades so low and curves 
so moderate as to make possible cheaper overland carriage than had ever been 
previously considered. Montana was beginning a large development of her own, 
while the active growth of the North Pacific Coast, though only in embryo, 
could be foreseen. In 1887 the lines of the Manitoba were e.xtended to a con- 
nection with the Montana Central. This latter company had been incorporated 
early in January, 1886. Realizing the importance of occupying a field in Mon- 
tana, which was essential to the future transcontinental line, valuable in itself 
and one which others were already preparing to secure, we had, with some 
friends, organized the company under the laws of Montana. Work was begun 
at once, the surveys being made in the coldest winter weather. Construction 
was rushed. The track was completed to Helena in 1887 ^.nd to Butte by the 
middle of 1888. A branch to Sand Coulee opened up the coal mines of that 
region, furnishing fuel for use on the Montana and Dakota divisions of the 
line, and for the development of the mining interests in Montana which had been 
obliged up to that time to bring in their coal from Wyoming. The work of 
extending the IManitoba line to connect with the Montana Central launched this 
company upon the most active period of construction ever known in this country. 

"Five hundred continuous miles were graded between April and September, 
1887, ^^nd by November 18, 643 miles of track had been laid, an average rate of 
construction of 3J4 miles for each working day. The annual report for that 
year said : 'The new mileage under construction within the period covered by 
the fiscal year ending June 30th and the residue of the calendar year 1887 * * * 
amounts to the relatively large quantity of 1,443.97 niiles, or 95.5 per cent of 
Lhe mileage under operation at the beginning of the same fiscal year.' But this 
activity on the main line to the west was only one item in the extension programme. 



344 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

In the years between 1882 and 1888 the stone arch bridge and terminals in Min- 
neapolis were completed ; the Dakota line down the Red River was finished to 
a connection with the Canadian Pacific ; the Casselton branch was purchased ; 
a line was built from Willmar to Sioux Falls, and afterwards extended to Yank- 
ton ; some railroads in South Dakota were bought ; the Montana Central was 
taken over at cost, and an elevator and large terminals at West Superior were 
arranged for. In 1889 the line to Duluth and West Superior was completed, 
giving terminals and dock accommodations which today are not surpassed any- 
where in the country. The total mileage operated had now increased to 3,030 
miles. The company had also begun to operate its own steamships, through the 
Northern Steamship Company, on the Great Lakes. These boats, which began 
to run in 1888 and 1889, not only afforded greater dispatch in the carriage of 
grain and flour from the head of the lakes to Buffalo and other lake ports, but 
they made the railroad independent of other lake lines. It was thus enabled to 
protect its patrons and to prevent its reductions in rates from being absorbed 
by increases made by the lines east of its lake terminals. 

"In 1889 the Great Northern Railway Company was organized, to bind into 
a compact whole the various properties that had grown too large for the charter 
limitations of the old ^Manitoba. It leased all the property of the latter company 
and was prepared to finance the undertakings about to be completed or in con- 
templation. By 1893 the line was opened through to Puget Sound. In the next 
five or six years many improvements were made by relaying track with heavier 
rails and by changes in equipment and large additions thereto. Branches and 
feeders were built to round out the system. In 1897 a more direct line from 
the head of the lakes to the west was created by purchase and construction that 
completed a road across Northern Minnesota to a connection with the main 
line. The taking over of the Seattle & Montana which, like the ^Montana Cen- 
tral, had been built by us to assure adequate terminals on the Pacific Coast and 
to enable construction to go forward from both ends of the line at once, extended 
the system from Seattle to Vancouver, B. C. In 1889 it had entered the ore- 
producing regions of Northern ^linnesota that was to give it a large addition to 
its traffic. 

"Just as, in the building of the Montana Central and the Seattle & Montana, 
it was necessary to know thoroughly the country in advance of railroad con- 
struction and to act upon that knowledge, so these ore lands in Northern Min- 
nesota had to be examined; and some of them it seemed desirable to acquire, 
with a view to the effect upon the future of the company's business. In Jan- 
uary, 1899, I purchased the Wright & Davis property, consisting of a line of rail- 
road, some logging road and a large quantity of ore lands. The purchase for 
$4,050,000 was made by me individually. My purpose was to secure the ship- 
ments of ore from these properties for the Great Northern ; and the profits from 
the mines, if there were any profits, for the stockholders of the company. The 
railroad was turned over to the Great Northern at cost. The ore property was 
transferred at cost to the Lake Superior Company, Limited, organized October 20, 
1900, to hold in trust, together, with other ore interests acquired later. A trust 
to administer the Great Northern ore properties was formed December 7, 1906, 
under resolutions adopted by the Great Northern Company. This trust took 
over the ore interests acquired by me, additional ore lands subsequently secured 



EAPLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 345 

and other properties. It issued against them 1,500,000 shares of certificates of 
beneficial interest, which were distributed, share for share, to holders of Great 
Northern stock at the time. The stockholders were thus put in possession of all 
the benefits accruing from the whole transaction. At the end of the last fiscal 
year the trustees had distributed a total of $7,500,000 to the certificate holders, 
while the future value of the properties so covered, owing to the quality and 
accessibility of the ore and the demand of the iron industry for new supplies of 
raw material, must be very large. 

"In 1901 the company decided to open negotiations for the joint purchase of 
the Chicago, Burlington & Ouincy System by the Great Northern and the 
Northern Pacific. These were carried to a successful completion by the issue 
of joint collateral trust bonds to the amount of $215,154,000, secured by the 
stock of the company acquired. Time has confirmed the wisdom of this act, by 
which through traffic arrangements have been simplified, and the public has 
gained much by the drawing together of markets and the quick and cheap dis- 
tribution of products between Chicago, St. Louis and the Pacific Coast. 

"It was planned, through the formation of the Northern Securities Com- 
pany, to form a holding concern for the control of these three great properties. 
The purpose was to prevent a dispersion of securities that might follow where 
large amounts were held by men well advanced in years, and so to secure the 
properties against speculative raids by interests at best not directly concerned 
in the progress of the country served by these lines. This was declared illegal, 
under the Sherman anti-trust law, by a divided court, upon suit by the United 
States Government, and the Northern Securities Company was dissolved. 

"In 1907 the subsidiary companies controlled by the Great Northern, includ- 
ing fourteen railway companies operated as a part of it, were purchased and 
incorporated into the Great Northern System, making of these related parts one 
homogeneous whole. In the same year I resigned the presidency of the system, 
and became chairman of the board of directors — the office that I lay down 
today. The work of extension and improvement has gone forward steadily. By 
the construction of the Spokane, Portland & Seattle line, along the north bank of 
the Columbia River, the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific obtained 
jointly entry over their own tracks into Portland. Lines are now being con- 
structed through Eastern Oregon that will open up a large and productive 
country. In 1909 the Burlington obtained control of the Colorado & Southern; 
so that the Great Northern covers, directly or over the tracks of allied lines, a 
territory reaching from Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Duluth and Superior 
on the east to Puget Sound and Portland on the west, and from Galveston to 
Vancouver, B. C. The Great Northern System has grown from less than four 
hundred miles of the original purchase to 7,407 miles. 

"I have some pride in the fact that, while constantly increasing both the 
volume and the efficiency of its service, the Great Northern has at the same time 
carried to market the products of the country at rates which have greatly devel- 
oped the territory served by its lines. If the freight and passenger rates in force 
in 1881 had remained unchanged until 1910, the total revenue collected from 
both sources for the thirty years would have been $1,966,279,194.80. The 
revenue actually collected was $698,867,239.91. The saving to shippers by the 
rate reductions which this represents was $1,267,411,954.89, or nearly twice the 



346 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

total amount received by the railroad. The average par value of its outstanding 
stock and bonds in the hands of the public during the same time was $155,576,917. 
Rate reductions in thirty years saved to the public more than eight times the 
average capitalization. In other words, the railroad could have paid cash for 
the entire par value of its stocks and bonds in less than every four years out of 
its earnings. I hope this may be considered a fair division. 

"The results herein summarized could not have been obtained without the 
cooperation of a staff of able and devoted assistants, trained to administrative 
work and grounded in right methods. It was clear to me from the first that the 
railroad must net more for the money it expended than the returns generally 
accepted at the time. High efficiency could be achieved only through the work 
of highly efficient men working with the best appliances. The staff was built up 
by recognizing intelligence and merit through promotions as vacancies occurred 
in the company's service, and by establishing throughout a morale that was rec- 
ognized by employes from the highest to the lowest. The result has been com- 
petence and loyalty, physical efficiency and financial success. 

"I shall give only a short summary of the financing of this great under- 
taking. The Great Northern was built by the money furnished by its stock and 
bond holders and with what it earned. As part of the property of the St. Paul 
& Pacific it obtained some fragments of a land grant in Minnesota to that com- 
pany. With the proceeds of the sales of these lands nearly $13,000,000 of bonds 
were retired and the annual interest charge has been correspondingly reduced. 
.A.11 the other transcontinental lines had received large subsidies in cash or land 
grants, or both. They suffered the check of financial stresses and passed through 
receiverships and reorganizations. The Great Northern, which includes the Mani- 
toba, never failed, never passed a dividend, never was financially insecure in any 
time of panic. For thirty-three years its credit has been unimpaired and its 
resources equal to any demands upon them ; and in times of financial distress 
it has been able to assist materially in moving the crops of the Northwest. The 
security of the investments of the holders of stock and bonds has always been a 
first consideration ; and the success and prosperity that attend the company today 
have not been purchased either by any doubtful transactions in the stock market 
or at the cost of one dollar ever committed by man or woman to this company 
in trust. 

"When we obtained an option on the securities of the old St. Paul & Pacific 
Company, no individtial or financial house in Europe or America, outside of 
those associated with us, would have taken the bargain off our hands. By a few 
it was. regarded as a doubtful venture, by most as a hopeless mistake. As has 
been said, obligations aggregating about $44,000,000 were capitalized at a little 
over .$31,000,000. The first stock issue was $15,000,000. The increase of capi- 
talization from that day to this has followed step by step the growth of the 
property, though falling far below its aggregate cost. Millions of earnings have 
been used in betterments and new construction that are usually covered by the 
sale of stock and bonds. 

"The stock of the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba was limited by its charter 
to $20,000,000. When the Great Northern was organized it took over the charter 
of the Minneapolis & St. Cloud Railway Company. The capital stock was made 
$20,000,000, which was afterwards increased to $40,000,000, in half common 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 347 

and half preferred. This was further increased to $45,000,000 in 1893 ''■'"i to 
$75,000,000 in 1898, none of which was issued as common stock, but all made 
uniform in character and all shares having equal rights. As the addition of 
mileage, the purchase of many minor companies, the consolidation of all the 
originally separate corporations into one system, with the exchange of its stock 
for theirs, and the addition of equipment and betterments required, the capital 
stock was added to from time to time. In 1899 it became $99,000,000; in 1901, 
$125,000,000; in 1905, $150,000,000; and in 1906, $210,000,000, at which figure 
it stands today. Every dollar of this represents honest value received. But the 
problems of its issue and disposal, the creation of a market for securities, the 
safeguarding of it against attack and its maintenance as an investment attractive 
and secure were difficult and slow of solution. The company has now acquired 
a standing which nothing in the ordinary course of events can impair. 

"The issue and placing of bonds was in some respects simpler and in some 
more complex than the distribution of stock. At the time when the St. Paul, 
Minneapolis & Manitoba was organized and for many years thereafter the rail- 
road world was governed by a code now done away with. It was the general 
practice to build new roads with the proceeds of bond issues. The accompanying 
stock was considered the legitimate property of the promoters, who were accus- 
tomed to use part of it as a bonus to the subscribers for bonds. When profits 
were large, stock dividends were held perfectly proper; and the general practice 
of railroads was to divide all profits in sight, and charge to capitalization all 
expenditures that could be so covered. This code and these policies were those 
not merely of speculators or railroad managers, but were publicly sanctioned 
both as a part of the necessary conduct of the business and ethically. This 
difference of standards has to be borne in mind constantly whenever one deals 
with railroad developments dating much earlier than twenty-five years ago. 

"During 1878, before the road was organized, 112 miles of track were built, 
and more than that the year following. A large amount of equipment was 
bought. To cover this outlay a part of the proceeds of the second mortgage 
issue of $8,000,000 was used. There was originally a limit of bond issues 10 
$12,000 per mile of single track road; which was found to be insufficient even 
for work mostly on prairie. In 1880 the Dakota extension mortgage was author- 
ized, of which $5,676,000 of 6 per cent bonds were issued from time to time, 
and this total of less than $22,000,000 covered the whole bonded indebtedness of 
the company down to 1883. But it by no means covered the actual expenditures 
for which bonds might legitimately be issued. 

"The period from 1879 to 1883, when the railroad was still an experiment in 
the minds of most eastern capitalists, was not a time to enlarge the volume of 
securities or ask outside capital to bid for them. All that this could have secured 
would have been some sales at much below par and an impaired credit. Yet 
money must be had to keep going the extension which was creating a new North- 
west; and, through that, a profitable and assured future for the company. So 
another method was adopted. The company diverted to these uses the money 
which might have been divided as profits among the stockholders. At one time 
210 miles of road were built and $1,700,000 were spent on equipment without a 
bond issue. The company became its own banker while waiting for a favorable 
market to be created. The stockholders temporarily renounced their profits in 



348 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

order to leave their money in the enterprise. But it remained their money, and 
their title to it was indisputable. It was costing now very much more than 
$12,000 a mile to build a substantial track. In all, about $11,000,000 of profits 
were put into new construction and betterments. The stockholder of that day 
expected these profits to be distributed. His right to them was sanctioned by 
public opinion as well as by custom and law. It was recognized in 1883. 

"In that year the credit foundation of the company was broadened and its 
methods systematized by the authorization of $50,000,000 consolidated mort- 
gage bonds. Of this amount, $19,426,000 were reserved to retire prior bonds, 
$10,574,000 were to be issued immediately and the remaining $20,000,000 were to 
be issued only on the construction thereafter of additional track at the rate of not 
to exceed $15,000 per mile, although the cost per mile was often as high as 
$25,000, and the cost of terminals added largely to this sum. Of the $10,574,000 
bonds issued on execution of the mortgage, $10,000,000 were sold to the stock- 
holders at par, payable 10 per cent in cash and 90 per cent in the property that 
had been constructed or acquired with the stockholders' money, thus returning 
to them $9,000,000 of the forced loans taken from them by sequestration of 
$11,000,000 of their profits during the previous years. To the stockholders the 
only difference was they received a portion of the legitimate earnings of the 
company in the shape of bonds instead of cash, and were deprived of the per- 
sonal use of it during the time that it had been used by the company. The differ- 
ence to the company was $2,000,000, or more, as it sold to its stockholders at 
par bonds which if placed on the market three years before could have been sold 
only at a heavy discount ; besides it was an indispensable aid to immediate growth 
and a conservation and building up of credit. The difference to the public was 
not a penny either way. 

"As branch lines were built or acquired their bonds were guaranteed. In 
1887 an issue of $25,000,000 on lines in Montana was authorized. Some improve- 
ment bonds were issued. The extension to the Pacific Coast was financed by the 
issue of £6,000,000 of mortgage bonds against the extension lines by the Mani- 
toba company. In 1889 the bonded debt had become $60,985,000. The Great 
Northern, which now took the place of other companies, issued collateral trust 
bonds, which were afterward retired from the proceeds of stock issues in 1898. 
It assumed the payment of bonds, principal and interest, of the companies taken 
into the system; and its bonded debt thus became $125,975,909 in 1908, of which 
over $28,000,000 were held as free assets in the company's treasury. Last year 
the total bonds on the property outstanding in the hands of the public amounted 
to $144,331,909. 

"Of this total, $35,000,000 were part of the issue of first and refunding mort- 
gage gold bonds authorized in 191 1 ; which brings us to the final standardization 
of the company's securities and the act by which it provided against future con- 
tingencies. This issue, of $600,000,000 in all, stands to the big systems of today 
as the $50,000,000 issue of consolidated bonds did to the small system of twenty- 
eight years before. It creates a financial clearing house through which its sev- 
eral outstanding securities may be converted into one of standard form and 
value; and it forms in addition a reservoir of authorized credit so carefully 
guarded by the conditions of the mortgage that it cannot be abused or dissipated, 
yet so ample that it will supply all needs for probably fifty years to come. No 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA ^49 

private estate in this country is more carefully provided against the future than 
is the property of the Great Northern Railway Company. All prior mortgages 
become closed, and more than one-half of the total $600,000,000 is to be used 
to redeem bonds issued under them and those issued to buy the company's inter- 
est in the Burlington. Nearly $123,000,000 may be used to cover the cost of 
other properties acquired or to be acquired ; while $100,000,000 may be issued, at 
not to exceed $3,000,000 per annum, to cover the cost of future construction, 
acquisition and betterments. 

"The financial outlook of this company is as well assured as that of most 
governments. It has a provision made now, deliberately and not under any 
pressure of necessity, for the work of years to come. That provision may be 
utilized in lean years and held in suspense in fat years, so as always to realize the 
best prices for securities and to keep the credit of the company unimpaired. No 
emergency can surprise it. It is financed for a period beyond which it would be 
fanciful to attempt to provide. And the development of its business throughout 
every part of the practically half a continent which it serves makes the payment 
of dividends on the stock as certain as that of its bond coupons. There has never 
been a default in either. There has never been a dollar's worth of stock or 
bonds issued that was not paid for in cash, property or services at its actual 
cash value at the time. The stock has paid a dividend ever since 1882, and since 
1900 the rate has remained steadily at 7 per cent. 

"The occasion permits no more than this condensed statement, passing in 
hasty review the fortunes of the railroad enterprise for more than thirty-five 
years. The first phase of the Great Northern Railway System is ended. The 
value of the property is founded on the resources of the country it traverses. 
From the head of the lakes to Puget Sound this is rich agricultural land. From 
fifty to one hundred miles of the line run through mountain valleys, but even 
these are susceptible of cultivation. Barring only the actual summits of the 
mountain passes, the country is capable, under the best modern agricultural treat- 
ment, of multiplying its wealth indefinitely and furnishing increasing and profit- 
able tonnage for years to come. The Great Northern is now wrought so firmly 
into the economic as well as the corporate body of the land as to have fitted itself 
permanently into the natural frame of things. So far as any creation of human 
effort can be made, it will be proof against the attacks of time." 

The two great constructive forces in the development of North Dakota were 
the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads. They were largely St. Paul 
enterprises, and Minneapolis men and resources have been rivals almost from the 
beginning; so Minneapolis capital built the Minneapolis & St. Louis to rival 
St. Paul's St. Paul & Sioux City; it reached the lakes at Sault Ste. Marie, and it 
extended its lines to remote corners of North Dakota in competition with the 
St. Paul lines, and also became a factor in the rapid development of North 
Dakota. 

The Chicago and Milwaukee lines also performed their part, but more par- 
ticularly as to South Dakota. The "Soo" had no land grant; the Milwaukee and 
Chicago lines had none in Dakota. 

JAMES J. HILL 

James J. Hill, born at Rockwood, Canada, in 1836, reached St. Paul in 1856, 
where he was employed on the levee. When the first railroad started in St. Paul, 



350 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

the old St. Paul & Pacific, Mr. Hill became the station agent for the road, but 
not in an ordinary way with a monthly salary stipendiary, but under a contract to 
handle all the traffic at so much per ton. In those days wood was the only fuel. 
Hard coal could only be secured by the long river route from Pittsburgh, and 
very little came to the city, save for the use of the gas company. The public and 
business buildings, as well as private houses, were supplied with wood fires. One 
of his first strokes of business, the foundation for his fortune, was when the 
St. Paul & Pacific Railroad was extended into what is still called the Big Woods 
Region of Minnesota, some fifty or sixty nriiles from St. Paul. He was able to 
make an exclusive contract with the railroad, whereby he alone could bring wood 
into the city at a given rate per cord, and consequently the entire fuel business of 
the city was at his command. It is to his credit to say that he did not use this 
power to extort unfair prices from the people. A moderate supply of fuel was 
brought in by teams and sold upon the public wood market, but Mr. Hill prac- 
tically regulated their prices by making his own prices as moderate as the cost of 
cutting and transportation would permit. The business, nevertheless, was 
undoubtedly very lucrative. 

His familiarity with the river business on the Mississippi led him to engage 
in traffic for himself on the Red River of the North, through which he not only 
grasped the trade of Northern Minnesota with its sparse population, but also 
tapped that of Winnipeg and Northern Canada. Starting with one steamer, he 
made such success that in 1872 he consolidated his Red River interests with those 
of the late Norman W. Kittson, who represented the great Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, and formed the Red River Transportation Company, and before the rail- 
roads relegated navigation on the Red River of the North to the past, he had no 
less than seven steamers and fifteen barges in his fleet. He was the manager 
and moving spirit in the Red River Transportation Company until the business 
was abandoned owing to the building of the railroads. 

Like most new enterprises in a new country, the original capitalists and pro- 
moters of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad did not profit by the germ which has 
since developed into the magnificent and profitable Great Northern system. The 
local people used the munificent land grant in Minnesota as a basis of credit, and 
obtained in Holland a good many million dollars, for which bonds were issued. 
The business of the road was very moderate because the population was too small 
to furnish business, St. Paul and Minneapolis being hamlets rather than cities in 
those days, and the entire population of the state was less than two hundred thou- 
sand people. The rails and equipment were so cheaply constructed that they would 
not be thought of today by any road, however small. Bridges were wooden, and 
culverts were cheaply built, and the bill for repairs and renewals was a draft 
upon the resources of the railroad far beyond its ability to meet from its operating 
income. In fact, its operating income was required to meet its operating expenses 
without providing means for betterments. The value of the land was a long look 
ahead, and the Dutch bondholders in Amsterdam became weary of and disgusted 
with their investment. They were willing and anxious to dispose of their bonds 
at almost any price they could get, and under these circumstances it is not sur- 
prising that their values fell to 10 cents on a dollar. 

What followed is told in the language of Mr. Hill in the letter to the stock- 
holders above printed. It is a part of the history of the Red River \^alley and 
of the Dakotas. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 351 

Mr. Hill believed in the Northwest, and believed it had a great future before 
it, and consequently he was enabled to enlist capital, and purchased bonds. The 
road had been thrown into the hands of a receiver, but the bonds were being 
purchased just the same by Mr. Hill and the capitalists who associated with him. 
His relations with Mr. Kittson, who had been associated with him in the Red 
River Transportation Company, proved of immense value. Mr. Kittson was a 
personal friend of Donald A. Smith, of Winnipeg, later a member of the House 
of Lords in England and Canadian Commissioner to the home government. 
Mr. Smith's influence brought in connection with the party Mr. George Stephen, 
also a member of the House of Lords in England. At that time he was president 
of the Bank of Montreal, one of the strongest financial institutions on the con- 
tinent. The result was that the property and land grant of the old St. Paul & 
Pacific were foreclosed upon and the purchasers of the bonds in Amsterdam were 
the purchasers of the entire system under the foreclosure. The road passed from 
the hands of the receiver into the hands of the new company. They obtained in 
this manner 437 miles of railroad, to which they promptly added 220 more, as 
well as rebuilt much of the old line, substituting iron bridges for wooden, lowering 
grades and cutting out vexatious curves, and in every way improved the system so 
that the expense for operating produced greatly increased earnings. This is the 
theory upon which Mr. Hill always acted, and in a large measure is the cause of 
his success in railroad construction and operating. 

It was in 1879 'h'lt the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railroad Company 
was organized by the syndicate which Messrs. Hill and Kittson had formed. 
Mr. Hill was the first general manager of the company and devoted his wonderful 
energies and vitality to the direct operating affairs of the railroad. He threw all 
the energies of his nature into this work, and no detail of the system escaped 
his personal attention. He knew what the cost of every item should be. From 
a spike to a steel rail or a locomotive, he could tell in an instant what the com- 
pany should pay for it. 

Of the first tract of land in North Dakota to which title was acquired from 
the Government, Mr. Hill purchased five acres for use in his Red River trade, 
and this was the first transfer of land in North Dakota. For nearly fifty years 
his was the influence overshadowing all others for the upbuilding of North 
Dakota. 

James J. Hill died May 25, 1916. At the hour of his funeral business stood 
still and every head in North Dakota and Minnesota bowed in silence or in prayer 
out of regard for this truly great man. Business houses closed, railroad trains 
stopped wherever they happened to be; teams stopped on the highway; plows 
ceased to move in the ftirrow and the hand of the seeder was stayed while all 
hearts went out and up for him. who had been their friend, and who was now gone 
from earth's activities. 

THE RED RIVER V.ALLEY 

The following sketch of the opening of the Red River trade belongs to this story 
of Mr. Hill. It is from the pen of Capt. Russell Blakely, the head of the great 
transportation interests, the immediate predecessors of the railroads : 

May, 1857, the English House of Commons took the initial steps toward 



352 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

opening the British Possessions in North America, then in the control of the 
Hudson's Bay Company to civihzation and unrestricted commerce. The committee 
having the matter in charge reported in favor of termination of the control of 
the Hudson's Bay Company at the end of their then twenty-first year term expir- 
ing in 1869. 

In 1857 the Hudson's Bay Company completed arrangements with the secre- 
tary of the treasury of the United States whereby goods for that company could be 
carried in bond through the United Slates, thus practically doing away with their 
Hudson's Bay Station known as York Factory, to which goods were then being 
shipped, vessels arriving and departing once a year. In the summer of 1858 two 
or three shipments of goods were so made leaving the Mississippi River at St. 
Paul and conveyed thence by Hudson's Bay carts under the direction of James 
McKay. 

In October, 1858, Capt. Russell Blakely of St. Paul, accompanied by John R. 
Irvine, visited the Red River Valley via St. Peter, Fort Ridgeley, Yellow Medi- 
cine, Lac qui Parle, and the Kittson Trail to Fort Abercrombie. Capt. Nelson 
H. Davis and Lieut. P. Hawkins of the Second United States Infantry, with their 
company were then stationed there. Jesse M. Stone was sutler. The fort had 
been hastily built and consisted of a few log cabins on the low lands. "Burling- 
ton" and "Sintominie," prospective Red River cities were passed and "La- 
fayette," opposite the mouth of the Sheyenne, about three miles from Georgetown 
was reached, from which point Mr. Blakely made his observations as to the 
possibilities of Red River navigation. 

Resulting from the report of Mr. Blakely, the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce 
paid a bonus of $2,000 for the first steamboat to be placed on the Red River. 
Anson Northrup had bought the old "North Star" at Minneapolis and took it up 
the river over Sauk Rapids and Little Falls, running up as far as Grand Rapids. 
This boat was laid up at Crow Wing that fall, where lumber for the new boat 
was sawed and taken over the country, together with the machinery of the "North 
Star," which had originally been brought from Maine and in 185 1 was placed in 
the "Governor Ramsey" and later in the "North Star," to Lafayette, where the 
"Anson Northrup" was built, and launched in 1859. Thirty- four teams were used 
in taking the boat and its furnishings from Crow Wing to Lafayette. 

Having run up to Fort Abercrombie the boat left that point for Fort Garry, . 
now Winnipeg, May 17th, arriving at Fort Garry, June 5, 1859. She returned to 
Fort Abercrombie with twenty passengers, where she was tied up, and when Cap- 
tain Blakely and others desired her further services they were informed that they 
would have to buy her if they wanted to run her. Later she was purchased by 
J. C. Burbank. 

Resulting from the mail lettings of 1858 the Minnesota Stage Company was 
organized by J. C. Burbank, Russell Blakely and Alvaren Allen, Allen being asso- 
ciated with Mr. Chase, and they had the contracts from St. Paul to Abercrombie 
and other northwestern points. The road to be fitted up for the stages on the 
routes it was proposed to put on rah from St. Cloud via Cold Springs, New 
Munich, Melrose, Winnebago Crossing, Sauk Rapids, Kandota, Osakis, Ale.x- 
andria, Dayton and Breckenridge to Abercrombie. The party left St. Cloud in 
June, 1859, for the opening of this route. Accompanying the expedition, aside 
from the teamsters, bridge builders, station keepers, etc., were the Misses Ellenora 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 353 

and Christiana Sterling from Scotland, Sir Francis Sykes of England, and 
servants together with J. W. Taylor, so long consul at Winnipeg. Northrup 
having refused to operate his boat, this party built a flat boat at Abercrombie 
and went down the river to Fort Garry, and the ladies went on to Lake Atha- 
basca, where they arrived just as winter set in. They were twenty-two days 
going down the river from Abercrombie to Garry, and their craft was the first 
boat on the Red River. Pelican Lake was named Ellenora for one of these ladies 
and the one just east of it Christiana for the other. George W. Northrup was 
captain of this boat. 

On his way to St. Paul on his return trip Captain Blakely learned of the 
purchase of the boat by Mr. Burbank. He notes the following members of the 
crew en route to put her to work : Edwin Bell, captain ; Dudley Kelly, clerk ; 
J. B. Young, pilot; A. R. Young, engineer. The point chosen for the head of 
navigation was below the mouth of the Buffalo River, about three miles from 
Lafayette, where the boat had been built. The boat unloaded at Goose Rapids, 
and McKay was about to take its cargo via carts to Garry when the timely 
arrival of Captain Blakely resulted in the construction of wing dams, which 
carried the boat safely over the rapids, and its tonnage landed all right at Garry. 
The crew returned via carts to St. Paul. 

In the spring of i860 Captain Blakely and associates completed a contract 
with Sir George Simpson for the transportation of 500 tons annually from St. 
Paul to Fort Garry for a period of five years. 

The "Anson Northrup" was repaired in the spring of i860 and became the 
"Pioneer" and was commanded that summer by Capt. Sam Painter, with Alden 
Bryant, clerk. The mail was extended from Abercrombie to Pembina and Wil- 
liam Tarbell and George W. Northrup were employed as carriers, using carts in 
summer and dog train in winter. 

In i860 Capt. John B. Davis undertook to take his steamboat "The Freighter," 
up the Minnesota River, and cross it over into the Red River. The boat left 
St. Paul in high water and got within about eight miles of Big Stone Lake, but 
had to give it up. "The Freighter" was sold to Burbank & Co., and C. P. V. Lull 
took out the machinery and hauled it over to Georgetown, where the boat was 
rebuilt and became the "International." A. W. Kelly, later of Jamestown, sawed 
the lumber for this boat. The engines were put in by Edwin R. Abell. . The 
"International" measured 137 feet in length by 26 feet beam and was rated at 133 
tons. C. P. V. Lull ran her for a trip or two when N. W. Kittson took charge 
of her, on account of his ability to talk with the Indians. 

The Indians had protested against the use of the river for steamboats, com- 
plaining that the boats drove away the game and killed the fish, while the whistle 
made such an unearthly noise that it disturbed the spirits of their dead and their 
fathers could not rest in their graves. They demanded four kegs of yellow 
money to quiet the spirits of their fathers or that the boats be stopped. At this 
time Clark W. Thompson, superintendent of Indian affairs and Indian Commis- 
sioner Dole, were en route to the mouth of the Red Lake River, opposite Grand 
Forks, to hold a treaty with the Indians. They were turned back by the opening 
of Indian hostilities. August 22, 1861, the Indians appeared at Dayton and Old 
Crossing, killing all the settlers they could find. At Breckenridge they killed all 
of the persons in the hotel and burned the house. They overtook the stage driver 



354 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

whom they killed, taking 2,500 pounds of express freight. They also plundered 
the train of wagons loaded with merchandise on its arrival on the treaty grounds, 
claiming that their wives and children were starving. 

Hostilities continued till 1863, when, in October of that year. Governor 
Alexander Ramsey made a treaty with the Indians which ended the trouble with 
them in the Red River Valley. In March, 1862, Congress provided for twice a 
week service on the mail route to Abercrombie. Stockades were built at Sauk 
Center, Alexandria, and Pomme de Terre, and the route was guarded by troops. 
The "International," abandoned in 1861, on the outbreak of hostilities, was brought 
to Abercrombie in 1863, by Captain Barret, and in 1864, was sold to the Hudson's 
Bay Company, it having become apparent that the country could not be opened 
up against the interest of that powerful organization. They did not want immi- 
gration and trade, nor mails or other appliances of civilization. The boat made 
one trip that year. The cart brigades again put in an appearance and the coim- 
try became devastated by grasshoppers. 

In March, 1869, the Earl of Granville succeeded in terminating the Hudson's 
Bay contracts and that company surrendered possession of the countr}', thus 
ending a twelve-year contest on the part of the Imperial government for the 
opening of the country. 

The organization of the Manitoba government was provided for in 1870, and 
August 23d of that year Colonel Wolsey, at the head of the Sixtieth Canadian 
Rifles, entered Fort Garry and September 2d Lieutenant Governor Archibald 
arrived and the colony was duly organized. James W. Taylor, the American 
consul, arrived in November. 

In December, 1870, the United States land office was opened at Pembina, and 
then the first public land was entered in North Dakota. There was then no 
regular mail to Fort Garry, and no recognized means of communication between 
Manitoba and the outside world. The cost of shipping freight from St. Cloud, 
the end of the railroad, to Fort Garry was $4 per hundred pounds. 

In the spring of 1871 Messrs. Hill and Griggs, of St. Paul, built the "Selkirk," 
which was put on the Red River that season, with Capt. Alex Griggs, the founder 
of Grand Forks, master. This boat arrived at Winnipeg April 19th, and having 
arranged to carry goods in bond, a wonderful trade was immediately opened with 
the Northwest. The success of the "Selkirk" forced the "International" into gen- 
eral trade. 

In 1871, the stage route was extended from Georgetown to Winnipeg, Cap- 
tain Blakely having contracted with the Dominion government to carry the mail 
from Pembina to Winnipeg. The first stage arrived in Winnipeg September 
II, 1871. 

During the winter of 1871, all of the Ixjats running on the Red River passed 
under control of Commodore Kittson. In 1872, an extensive business in flat boat- 
ing developed. Scores of flat boats were built in 1872. and engaged in trading 
with down river points, the boats being sold at their destination and used for 
lumber. Logs were also run down the Red Lake River and used for lumber. 

In 1874. an opposition line of steamers was put on the Red River by Manitoba 
and St. Paul parties, known as the Merchants Line. The boats were the "Minne- 
sota" and "Manitoba." The latter was sunk by the "International" in a collision. 
These boats finally passed into the hands of Mr. Kittson in 1876. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 355 

The Kittson Line was organized about 1876, and was called the Red River 
Transportation Company. The principal boats were the "International," Captain 
Painter; the "Minnesota," Captain Timmens ; the "Manitoba," Capt. Alex. Griggs; 
the "Dakota," Captain Seigers; the "Selkirk," Capt. John Griggs; and the 
"Alphia," Captain Russell. 

The railroad was extended to Fisher's Landing in 1877, and December 2, 1878, 
the track layers joined the rails of the Canadian Pacific, and what is now the 
Great Northern at the international boundary, and the development of the Red 
River Valley was commenced in earnest. 

The stage company transferred its business to the Black Hills and the steam- 
boats gave way to the railroads, little business having been done on the river since 
that time. 

The grasshopper raids of 1875 completely destroyed all crops in Manitoba 
and the people of that region had no seed. The governor of Manitoba secured 
12.000 bushels of wheat for seed in Traill Count}', at Caledonia and whatever 
of excellence there is in Manitoba seed now, comes originally from North Dakota.. 



CHAPTER XXIII 
RED RIVER VALLEY OLD SETTLERS ASSOCIATION 

HISTORY OF THE ASSOCIATION 

The Red River Valley Old Settlers Association was organized at a meeting 
held for the purpose at Grand Forks, December 27, 1S79. The following named 
persons were present, viz. : Alex Griggs, O. S. Freeman, W. C. Nash, James Han- 
rahan, James A. Jenks, Z. Hunt, Ed Williams, D. P. Reeves, Burt Haney, R. 
M. Probstfield, Wm. Blair, Thomas Walsh, P. McLaughlin, Wm. Budge, James 
McRea, George Akers, Alatt McGuinness, N. FIoiTnian, J. J. Cavanaugh, M. L. 
McCormack, George B. Winship. 

R. M. Probstfield was elected president and George B. Winship, secretary. 

The following were appointed committees to solicit members and to arrange 
for a permanent organization : From Grand Forks County, Alex Griggs, D. P. 
Reeves, Matt McGuinness ; from Wilkin County, J. R. Harris, D. McCauley, and 
Ransom Phelps ; from Clay County, R. M. Probstfield, E. R. Hutchinson, C. P. 
Sloggy ; from Polk County, James A. Jenks, E. M. Walsh, John Island; from 
Kittson and Marshall counties, D. F. Brawley, J. W. Stewart, A. W. Stiles ; from 
Pembina County, Chas. Cavileer, William Budge, N. E. Nelson ; from Traill 
County, Asa Sargent, C. M. Clark, George Weston ; from Cass County, J. B. 
Chapin, J. Lowell, Jr., George Egbert ; from Richland County, M. T. Rich, and 
two others to be named by him. 

The permanent association was organized at Grand Forks, February 4, 1880, 
with about thirty-five present. R. M. Probstfield was re-elected president : Asa 
Sargent, Traill County ; N. E. Nelson, Pembina County, and J. R. Harris, Wilkin 
County ; vice presidents ; George B. Winship, of Grand Forks, secretary ; Frank 
Veits, J. S. Eshelman, and M. L. McCormack, Grand Forks, executive committee. 
Letters were received from Gen. H. H. Sibley, Ex-Senator H. M: Rice, J. J. Hill, 
and N. W. Kittson, of St. Paul, Chas. Cavileer, S. C. Cady, and others. 

A membership fee of $1.00 was fixed and the following paid their adjoining 
fee: W. C. Nash, John Fadden, Ed Williams, R. Fadden, James Hanrahan, 
George Akers, Z. M. Hunt, Wm. Fleming, George Ames, George B. Winship, 
Alex Griggs, Jacob Reinhart, Wm. Budge, Robert Coulter, L. Surprise, M. Ferry, 
N. Hoffman, J. A. Jenks, M. L. McCormack, F. Veits. J. S. Eshelman. 

The association again met at Grand Forks, December 8, 1880, D. F. Brawley 
was elected president ; Howard R. Vaughn, Alex Griggs, James Holes, vice presi- 
dents, George B. Winship, secretary and treasurer. The following named per- 
sons were present and paid a fee of $1.00 each: Burt Haney, John Fadden, D. F. 

356 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 357 

Brawley, H. R. \'aughn, Richmond Fadden, Edward Williams, James A. Jenks, 
W. P. Blair, Joseph Greenwood, George H. Ames, Nick Hoffman, Z. M. Hunt, 
Michael McGuinness, James Hanrahan, William Budge, M. L. McConnack, O. S. 
Freeman, W. C. Nash, George W. Akers, Frank Veits, George B. Winship, 
Michael Ferry, John Island, Leon Surprise, J. S. Eshelman, Robert Coulter, Alex 
Griggs, R. M. Probstfield, E. R. Hutchinson. An entertaining letter was read 
from J. W. Taylor, United States consul at Winnipeg. 

The association met at Pembina, October 13, 1881, F. T. Bradley, of Emerson, 
was elected president ; J. M. Tennant, of West Lynn, secretary, and George B. 
Winship, treasurer; John Fadden, of Grand Forks, N. E. Nelson, of Pembina 
and J. B. Chapin, of Fargo, were elected vice presidents. 

The following named persons were present and paid a fee of $1.00: Hugh 
O'Donnell, Chas. J. Brown, A. Carl, A. Walston, Capt. Alex Griggs, S. W. 
Ferry, Chas. Crawford, F. S. Freeman, Robert Ewing, M. L. McCormack, A. C. 
McCumber, H. R. Vaughn. S. C. Cady, Jacob Reinhart, Chas. Cavileer, W. J. S. 
Traill, A. W. Stiles, Wm. Camp, E. Armstrong, George B. Winship, Burt Haney, 
Frank Myrick, Captain Aymond, Judson LaMoure, N. E. Nehon, Norman 
Gingras, Andrew J. Nelson, Thos. Walsh, D. F. Brawley, John Fadden, F. T. 
Bradley. 

Consul J. W. Taylor, A. G. Bannatyne, and Capt. H. S. Donaldson, of Win- 
nipeg, E. C. Davis, of Crookston, and R. M. Probstfield, of Moorhead, were 
elected additional vice presidents. 

There was no meeting of the association for ten years when they again met 
at Grand Forks for the purpose of re-organization, December 10, 1891, George 
B. Winship was elected president, and D. M. Holmes, secretary. N. K. Hubbard, 
O. H. Elmer, John Erickson, Frank Veits and Charles Cavileer were appointed 
a committee on permanent organization. 

This committee limited membership to those who settled in the Red River 
Valley prior to December 31, 1875. Charles Cavileer, of Pembina: A. Sargent, 
of Traill; Jacob Lowell, of Cass; Hans Myhra, of Richland; O. H. Elmer, of 
Polk ; John Erickson, of Clay ; and David McCauley, of Wilkin ; were elected 
vice presidents. J. W. Taylor, Robert Patterson, W. G. Fonseca, and E. L. Bar- 
ber, of Manitoba, were elected honorary members. 

Those present were George B. Winship, D. M. Holmes, J. B. Chapin, Jacob 
Lowell, N. E. Nelson, Robert Ewing, H. R. Vaughn, Richmond Fadden, P. P. 
Nokken, H. C. Myhra, Asa Sargent, P. S. Kelly, Halvor Thoraldson, E. M. 
Walsh, W. H. Moorhead, M. D. Campbell, George A. Wheeler, Thomas Camp- 
bell, Edward O'Brien, James A. Jenks, N. K. Hubbard, Z. M. Hunt, J. G. Hamil- 
ton, John W. W. Smith, Thos. Walsh, W. H. Brown, Michael Ferry, George H. 
Walsh, James Duckworth, Wm. Camp, Frank Veits, Joseph Jarvis, Casper Mosher, 
George H. Fadden, John Erickson, C. Cavileer, John N. Harvey, James Elton, O. 
H. Elmer, J. T. Taylor, R. Patterson, Ed Williams, George A. Wheeler, Jr., B. 
Haggerty, James K. Swan, W. J. Anderson, John O. Fadden, G. G. Beardsley, 
['hilip McLaughlin, George E. Jackson, Walter J. S. Traill, Judson LaMoure, 
lohn Kabernagle. 

The association met at Moorhead, December 7, 1892, George B. Winship was 
elected president, N. K. Hubbard, Job Herrick, S. G. Comstock, James Nolan, 



358 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Asa Sargent, O. H. Elmer, and Chas. Cavileer, vice presidents. Ransom Phelps 
was elected local secretary, and D. M. Holmes, secretary. 

Those present at this meeting were J. R. Harris, James Nolan, Frank Her- 
rick. Job Herrick, Henry Wenans, F. J. Burnham, S. G. Comstock, James Holes, 
W. J. Bodkin, John Wold, Fred Ambs, Harry O'Neil, Jerome Daniels, J. C. 
Probert, J. B. Blanchard, Wm. W. Gamble, B. F. Mackall, W. H. Davy, A. F. 
Pinkham, John Reistad, Lewis Hicks, Andrew Hicks, Andrew McHench, F. J. 
Smith, P. H. Lamb, J. H. Sharp. 

The next meeting of the association was at Breckenridge, December 6, 1893. 
Of the old members George B. Winship, Job Herrick, Frank Herrick, James 
Nolan, John Erickson, H. C. Myhra, and F. J. Smith were present. Frank 
Doleshy, Folsom Dow, Benjamin Taylor, Frank Formaneck, Menzel Niskesch, 
August Hoefs, Chas. Bladow, Frederick Hoefs, August Bendt, Erick A. Lein, 
John Myhra, Edward Connelly, Edward Hyser, D. Wilmot Smith, Peter Hanson, 
Aaron B. Lichta, Hans Martinson, and Anthony Nolan were admitted to mem- 
bership. 

James Nolan was elected president, W. J. Bodkin, B. Sampson, Frank Veits, 
Chas. Cavileer, Asa Sargent, N. K. Hubbard, and Folsom Dow, vice presidents ; 
Frank J. Smith, secretary, and John Erickson, treasurer. 

The association met at Fargo, December 6, 1894. Those present were John 
E. Haggart, S. G. Roberts, G. S. Barnes, H. G. Shurlock. Chas. B. Thiemens, 
Clement A. Lounsberry, Arthur Bassett, Frank Whitman, S. E. Herrick, Evan S. 
Tyler, Alex Gamble, Joseph Prevost, S. F. Crockett, Jas. H. Sharp, Edwin 
Griffin, Wm. H. White, Wm. O'Neil, Martin Hector, A. G. Lewis, G. J. Keeney, 
Jacob Lowell, James Holes, Harry O'Neil, George B. Winship, A. McHench, 
W. H. Brown, E. R. Hutchinson, Job Herrick, P. Kelly, Frank Veits, Jacob 
Reinhart, W. J. Anderson, J. A. Jenks, James Nolan, James Elton, R. M. Probst- 
field, W. J. Murphy, F. J. Smith and S. G. Comstock. 

N. K. Hubbard was elected president, R. M. Probstfield, Chas. Cavileer, W. C. 
Nash, George B. Winship, C. W. Morgan, James Holes, Frank Herrick and 
Edward Connelly vice presidents; B. F. Mackall, secretary, and Wm. H. White, 
treasurer. 

C. A. Lounsberry, Geo. B. Winship, S. G. Roberts, S. F. Crockett, E. S. Tyler, 
Chas. Cavileer and David McCauley were appointed a committee to gather facts 
concerning the early settlement and history of the Red River Valley. This reso- 
lution was upon the motion of W. J. Murphy of the Minneapolis Tribune. 

S. G Comstock, S. G. Roberts and A. McHench were appointed a committee 
to draft a constitution and by-laws for the association. 

The association met at Grand Forks, December 26, 1895, George B. Win- 
ship presided in the absence of President Hubbard on account of illness. Pres- 
ident Hubbard's address was read by Colonel C. A. Lounsberry. Those present 
were H. E. Maloney, James Colosky, C. F. Getchell, James Twamley, C L. Gor- 
don, Jorgen Howard. Frank Williams, Robert Anderson, C. W. Morgan, D. 
Perkins, A. Barlow, F. A. Wardell, J. E. Sullivan, A. H. Barlow, James Nesbitt, 
D. McDonald, James Smith, John Kinan, Wm. Skinner, Gus Williams, Thomas 
McVitre, O. Osmond and Christopher R. Coulter. 

Colonel Lounsberry, from the historical committee, reported the work done 
by his committee, which included the establishment of The Record, for the pur- 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 359 

pose of gathering historical data, and was accorded a vote of thanks. The names 
of H. G. Stordock, James A. Jenks and John Island were entered on the death 
roll, and suitable resolutions of respect and condolence adopted. 

The following officers were elected: President, Frank \'eits ; vice presidents. 
W. H. Moorhead, Pat Kelly, Jacob Reinhart, E. R. Hutchinson, Robert Coulter, 
James Nolan, Job Herrick ; treasurer, D. M. Holmes and George B. Winship, 
secretary. 

Those who settled in the Red River \'alley prior to December 31, 1877, were 
voted eligible to membership. 

The sixth annual meeting of the reorganized association was held at Pembina, 
December 18, 1896. The following members were present: W. H. Brown, Jud- 
son LaMoure, Joseph Colosky, C. A. Lounsberry, John Hater, E. K. Cavileer, 
Charles Cavileer, John Otten, James Carpenter, Frank Russell, Geo. Allard, F. A. 
Hart, Joseph Desloria, Andrew Cragin, Peter Hogan, Milo Fadden, H. E. Malo- 
ney, Frank Myrick, George B. Winship, Joe Parent, \\\ H. Moorhead, Fred 
Delisle, Joseph Morin, W. J. Kneeshaw, Thos. J. Neilson, Bradner Johnson, 
John Hogan, F. A. Wardwell. 

It was ordered that all persons who settled in the Red River \'alley prior to 
July I, 1879, should be eligible to membership, and that a permanent secretary 
should be elected. The secretary, president and George B. Winship were ap- 
pointed a committee on constitution and by-laws, and were directed to take what- 
ever steps were necessary- to secure the incorporation of the association under the 
laws of North Dakota. 

Frank Veits was elected president, W. H. ^^oorhead, G. S. Barnes, James 
Carpenter, Pat Kelly, E. R. Hutchinson, Robert Coulter, James Nolan and Job 
Herrick, vice presidents; D. M. Holmes, treasurer, and C. A. Lounsberry, secre- 
tary. 

The association was finally incorporated by the action of the seventh annual 
meeting. 

.XRTICLES OF ASSOCIATION OF THE RED RIVER VALLEY OLD SETTLERs' ASSOCIATION 

Article I. This corporation shall be known as the Red River Valley Old 
Settlers' Association, and is incorporated under Sec. 3183 Revised Codes of N. D. 

Article II. The general offices of this association shall be at Fargo. 

x-\rticle III. This association shall exist for a period of forty years. 

Article IV. The number of directors of this association shall be eleven, 
but the following shall constitute a first board of directors and shall execute 
these articles : 

President — James K. Swan, Grand Forks, N. D. 
Vice President — James Nolan, Wilkin County, Minn. 
Vice President — Thomas McCoy, Traill County, N. D. 
Vice President — James Carpenter, Walsh County, N. D. 
Secretary — C. A. Lounsberry, Fargo, N. D. 
Treasurer — D. M. Holmes, Grand Forks, N. D. 

Article V. This association may become subordinate to a state organiza- 
tion of old settlers ; and associations subordinate to this may be organized in each 



^60 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

of the Red River V^alley counties in Minnesota and North Dakota, having pur- 
poses in harmony with this organization. 

Article VI. This association may hold real and personal property not ex- 
ceeding in value $10,000. It may receive bequests for the purpose of establish- 
ing an historical and biographical library, for preserving its records, publishing 
its proceedings, biographical sketches, etc. When dissolved its property shall 
be turned over to the state for historical and library purposes. 

Article VII. The private property of the members of this association shall 
not be liable for its debts. 

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seals this 29th 
day of September, 1897. 

James K. Swan, [seal.] 
James Nolan, [seal.] 

Thomas McCoy, [seal.] 
James Carpenter, [seal.] 
C. A. Lounsberry, [seal.] 

STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA }.ss 
County of Grand Forks, 

On this 29th day of September, 1897, personally appeared before me James 
K. Swan, James Nolan, Thomas McCoy, James Carpenter, C. A. Lounsberry and 
D. M. Holmes, who, being duly sworn, doth each for himself say that he is an 
officer and director of the Red River Valley Old Settlers' Association, and that 
these articles of association are executed in accordance with a majority vote had 
at a regularly called meeting of said association held at Pembina, N. D., Decem- 
ber 18, 1896, and that at a regularly called meeting of said association held at 
Grand Forks, September 29, 1897, by a majority vote they were especially des- 
ignated to sign and file said articles of association. 

J. G. HAMILTON, 
Notary Public, Grand Forks County, 
North Dakota. 

Colonel Lounsberry was elected secretary for a term of si.x years. 

The following is a list of members, with date of settlement, on the roster in 

1895- 

Alex Griggs, Grand Forks, November, 1870. 
R. Fadden, Grand Forks, October, 187 1. 
M. L. McCormack, Grand Forks, March, 1871. 
Geo. B. Winship, Winnipeg, May, 1867. 
Z. M. Hunt, Huntsville, Minn., April, 1871. 
Colin McFadden, Grand Forks. July, 1871. 
George W. Akers, McCauleyville, October, 1870. 
Burton E. Haney, McCauleyville, February, 1871. 
Jacob Reinhart, McCauleyville, May, 1867. 
Isaac Ward, Pembina, January, 1871. 
Alex Blair, McCauleyville, January, 1870. 
Alfred Wright, McCauleyville, May, 1867. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 361 

James Hanrahan, McCauleyville, April, 1867. 
John Cromety, Pembina, June, 1871. 
John Fadden, Grand Forks, June, 1871. 
Matt McGuinness, Georgetown, April, 1871. 
William Budge, Pembina, June, 1870. 
Michael Ferry, Breckenridge, September, 1868. 
George H. Ames, Pembina, ^lay, 1871. 
George H. Fadden, Grand Forks, July, 1871. 
Edward Williams, Grand Forks, June, 1871. 

A. W. Nalstreim, Grand Forks, May, 1871. 
W. C. Nash, Pembina, November, 1863. 
Frank Veits, Georgetown, September, 1871. 

Leon Surprise, Fort Abercrombie, December, 1867. 
Nick Hoffman, Georgetown, April, i860. 
John Connolly, Fort Abercrombie, August, 1869. 
W. G. Woodnut, Sheyenne River, June, 1871. 
Robert Coulter, Huntsville, Minn., June, 1871. 
William Fleming, Huntsville, Minn., June, 1871. 

B. S. Kelly, Kelly's Point, July, 1871. 
Thomas Walsh, Grand Forks, April, 1871. 
James McCrea, Grand Forks, June, 1871. 
N. E. Nelson, Pembina, May, 1869. 

B. F. Mackall, Moorhead, April, 1873. 

D. F. Brawley, Pembina, 1870. 

H. R. Vaughn, McCauleyville, 1870. 

S. C. Cady, Pembina, 1869. 

Joseph Greenwood, Grand Forks, 1871. 

R. M. Probstfield, opposite mouth of Sheyenne River, 1859. 

E. R. Hutchinson, opposite mouth of Sheyenne River, 1859. 
Frank D. RTyrick, Fort Ransom. 1857. 

William Camp, Pembina, 1870. 
A. W. Stiles, Pembina, 1870. 
Edward Armstrong, Winnipeg, 187 1. 
Adolph Carl, Fort Abercrombie, 1870. 
Frank Aymond, Pembina, 1867. 
Charles Crawford. Fargo, 1872. 
Samson W. Fry, Pembina, 1870. 
Judson LaMoure, Pembina, 1870. 
Robert Ewing, Dakota Lake, ATinn., 1871. 
Norman Gingras, bom at St. Joseph. 
Andrew T. Nelson, Pembina, 1871. 
Charles Cavileer, Pembina, 185 1. 

F. W. Manley, North Pembina, 1870. 
W. J. S. Traill, Georgetown, 1869. 
Wm. H. Moorhead, Pembina, 1857. 
Chas. B. Nelson, Pembina, 1851. 

D. M. Holmes, Grand Forks, 1872. 
Jacob Lowell, Fargo, October, 1870. 



362 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

P. P. Nokken, Fargo, June, 187 1. 

H. C. N. Myhra, Richland County, June, 187 1. 

Asa Sargent, Caledonia, July, 1870. 

P. S. Kelly, Caledonia, September, 1871. 

Halver Thoraldson, Grand Forks, June, 1874. 

Ed M. Walsh, Grand Forks, October, 1871. 

M. D. Chappell, Grand Forks, April, 1873. 

George A. Wheeler, Grand Forks, November, 1873. 

Thomas Campbell, Grand Forks, August, 1872. 

N. K. Hubbard, Moorhead, September, 1870. 

J. G. Hamilton, Sisseton, April, 1875. 

John W. Smith, Grand Forks, April, 1873. 

William H. Brown, Grand Forks, 1875. 

George H. Walsh, Grand Forks, April, 1875. 

James Duckworth, Grand Forks, March, 1875. 

Joseph Jarvis, Grand Forks, October. 1872. 

Casper Moser, Crookston, 1872. 

John Erickson, Moorhead, December, 1870. 

John N. Harvey, Manvel, 1874. 

James Elton, Georgetown, May, 1871. 

O. H. Elmer, Moorhead, October, 1871. 

George A. Wheeler, Jr., Grand Forks, November, 1873. 

B. Haggerty, Grand Forks, May, 1884. 

James K. Swan, Grand Forks, April, 1874. 

W. Anderson, Grand Forks, April, 1875. 

George G. Beardsley, Fargo, June, 1871. 

Philip McLaughlin, Fargo, September 16, 1872. 

George E. Jackson, Crookston, July, 1872. 

Walter J. S. Traill, Fort Garry, July, 1866. 

James Nolan, McCauleyville, July. 1865. 

Frank Herrick, Old Crossing, July 20, 1870. 

Job Herrick, Old Crossing, July 20, 1870. 

Henry Wenans, Moorhead, March, 1873. 

F. J. Burnham, Glyndon, April 20, 1872. 

S. G. Comstock, Moorhead, June. 1871. 

James Holes, Fargo, July. 1871. 

W. J. Bodkin. Moorhead, December, 1868. 

John Wold, Wild Rice, June i, 1871. 

Fred Ambs, Moorhead, August, 1871. 

Harry O'Neil, Fargo, January, 1872. 

Jerome Daniels, Glyndon, April, 1872. 

J. C. Probert, Fargo, April, 1872. 

J. B. Blanchard, Moorhead, August, 1871. 

William W. Gamble, Fargo, August, 1873. 

W. H. Davy, Moorhead. October, 1874. 

A. F. Pinkham, Fargo, October i, 1871. 

John Reinstad, Kindred. September i, 1870. 

Louis Hicks, Hickson, June 2, 1872. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 363 

Andrew McHench, Fargo, November 2, 1870. 

Andrew Hicks Hickson, June 18, 1871. 

P. H. Lamb, Moorhead, June, 1872. 

J. H. Sharp, Moorhead, June, 1872. 

Folsom Dow, Wahpeton, 1871. 

B. F. Menkens, Moorhead, 1872. 

Peter Hanson, Breckenridge, 1871. 

Hans Martinson, Tangberg, 1871. 

Anthony Nolan, Fort Abercrombie, 1866. 

Ransom Phelps, Wahpeton, 1871. 

D. Wilmot Smith, Wahpeton, 1871. 
Benjamin Taylor, Wahpeton, 1872. 
John Myhra, Wild Rice, 1870. 
Frank Famousch, Wahpeton, 1871. 
Frank Doleshy, Wahpeton, 1873. 
Samuel Taylor, Wahpeton, 1872. 
H. C. N. Myhra, Kingsburg, 1871. 
August Berndt, Hankinson, 1874. 
Eric A. Lein, Dwight, 1875. 

Fred Hoefs, Hankinson, 1874. 

E. R. Hyser, Breckenridge, 1871. 
August Hoefs, Hankinson. 1874. 
Chas. Bladow, Hankinson, 1874. 
John E. Haggart, Fargo, 1871. 
S. G. Roberts, Fargo, 1872. 

G. S. Barnes, Glyndon, 1872. 

Chas. B. Thiemens, Fargo, 1873. 

Clement A. Lounsberry, Fargo, April 4, Bismarck, May 11, 1873. 

Arthur Bassett, Glyndon, 1872. 

Frank Whitman, Fargo, 1871. 

S. E. Herrick, born in North Dakota, 1873. 

Evan S. Tyler, Fargo, 1873. 

Alex Gamble, F^rgo, 1872. 

Joseph Prevost, Wolverton, Minn., 1867. 

W. H. White, Fargo, 1872. 

A. H. Morgan, Frog Point, 1871. 

N. B. Pinkham, Fargo, 1871. 

William O'Neill, Fargo, 1872. 

Martin Hector, Fargo, 1872. 

G. J. Keeney, Fargo, 1871. 

H. E. Maloney, Grand Forks, 1873. 

Jos. Colosky, McCauleyville, 1871. 

C. F. Getchell, Frog Point, 1872. 

James Twamley, Grand Forks, 1876. 

C. L. Gordon, Caledonia, 1871. 

Jorgen Howard, Clay County, Minn., 1873. 

J. F. Williams, Breckenridge, Minn., 1875. 

Robert Anderson, Grand Forks, 1871. 



364 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

C. W. Morgan, Goose River, 1872. 

D. Perkins, Grand Forks, 1874. 
A. Barlow, Grand Forks, 1875. 
F. A. Wardwell, Glyndon, 1873. 
J. E. Sullivan, Grand Forks, 1875. 
A. H. Barlov*?, Grand Forks, 1876. 
Robert Ray, Belmont, 1871. 

J. A. Barlow, Grand Forks, 1876. 

James Nesbit, Huntsville, 1874. 

Terrence Martin, Fargo, 1871. 

D. McDonald, Vermilion, 1873. 

Jos. Smith, Grand Forks, 1871. 

John Kinnan, Fargo, 1871. 

William Skinner, Fisher, 1873. 

Gus Williams, Walshville, 1873. 

Thomas McVeety, Polk County, Minn., 187 1. 

O. Osmond, Polk County, Minn., 1871. 

C. R. Coulter, Polk County, Minn., 1872. 

September 29, 1897, the following additional members were registered ; 

Hugh Parr, Kelly's Point, 1876. 

James O'Reiley, Grand Forks, 1879. 

Donald Stewart, Forest River, 1878. 

Alexander Oldham, Grand Forks, 1877. 

H. H. Strom, Traill County, 1878. 

C. O. Maloney, Grand Forks, 1875. 

John Swift, Grand Forks, 1874. 

William Code, Park River, 1878. 

James Peete, Grand Forks, 1878. 

M. C. Gaulke, Grand Forks, 1878. 

Thos. Nisbet, Mallory, Minn., 1878. 

Wm. H. Standish, Polk County, Minn., 1879. 

Louis A. Lhiver, Grand Forks, 1878. 

M. Addison, Grand Forks, 1879. 

H. D. Cutler, Grand Forks, 1879. 

H. Arnegaard, Hillsboro, 1871. 

M. D. Chappell, Grand Forks, 1873. 

L. M. Anderson, Pembina, 1872. 

M. L. Enright, East Grand Forks, 1872. 

Peter Gannaw, Frog Point, 187 1. 

H. P. Ryan, Grand Forks, 1878. 

Geo. F. Whitcomb, Fort Abercrombie, 1865. 

C. A. Lounsberry, Fargo, April 4, 1873. 

Geo. J. Longfellow, Fargo, 1879. 

Wm. Ackerman, Abercrombie, 1866. 

John O'Leary, Grand Forks, 1878. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 365 

Hubbard's sure tip 

N. K. Hubbard, in his address to the Old Settlers' Association, November 
26, 1895, said : 

"It was my good fortune to be associated with our friend, Frank Veits. We 
came together from Geneva, Ohio, to make our fortunes in the West. We pro- 
ceeded to Georgetown, seventeen miles north of Fargo, where we found Adam 
Stein occupying the old Hudson's Bay Hotel. Jacob Lowell, Jr., had also come 
on an intimation from A. B. Stickney that Georgetown was near the probable 
crossing of the Red River by the Northern Pacific. And Back, the friend, 
adviser, relative and representative of Horace Austin, then governor of Minne- 
sota, was there also. Walter J. S. Traill, for whom Traill County was named, 
was agent at Georgetown for the Hudson's Bay Company. George Sanborn, a 
friend and acquaintance of William Windom, was also there. We were waiting 
and watching, and finally the glad tidings came from Cooke. Pitt Cooke, a 
brother of Jay Cooke, visited Georgetown and selected the crossing. The message 
was delivered to the Northern Pacific surveyors by me. The order was to locate 
the crossing at the mouth of the Elm, about eight miles east of Grandin. Veits 
and I were first to know it. Imagine my joy. We all went to the Elm River ex- 
cepting Veits, wiser than the rest, who continued furnishing entertainment for 
man and beast. He paid Adam Stein $100 to move out and let him in. Not for 
the property, for that belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company, but to give him 
possession and the opportunity to entertain the coming hosts, for we all realized 
what a rush would come. We knew the country and correctly estimated its 
value. We all built log houses at Elm River and most of the party stayed there 
a whole year before Lowell, who made daily trips up and down the river in 
connection with Back and McHench, each having their beat for patrolling the 
river from Sheyenne to the Elm, discovered Beardsley at work on the town- 
site at Fargo. And then Elm River was abandoned. I had gone east after two 
months' waiting, and when I returned a jumper occupied my cabin and demanded 
$600 before he would give possession. I let him keep it and engaged in business 
at Oak Lake. The crossing was not established for a year later, and then 
twenty-seven miles south of the point named in my sure tip. 

"This was in 1870. Then the entire white population of North Dakota would 
not exceed five hundred. There was a small settlement at Pembina, mostly Gov- 
ernment employes connected with the custom house or the trader's store. There 
were two or three settlers at Grand Forks, among them Nick Hufliman. Ed 
Griffin lived in Cass County, but Fargo was not located. Georgetown was the 
metropolis of the valley. The nearest land office in North Dakota where land 
could be entered was at Vermilion. S. Dak. But little land had been sur- 
veyed, and that about Pembina. Not an acre had been entered, not a bushel of 
grain had been raised in the valley for shipment abroad, and not enough to feed 
even the few families found scattered here and there along the river. The Red 
River cart was the only means of transportation that had been put on. L. H. 
Tenny and myself came into the country on horseback from St. Cloud. Tenny 
settled at Glyndon and became the father of the Northern Pacific Elevator Com- 
pany, with George S. Barnes, his practical worker, the moving force. Not until 
December, 1870, was there a single entry of land made in North Dakota. There 



366 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

was no Fargo or Moorhcad. Not one settler had yet entertained the idea of 
occupying the rich lands in its immediate vicinity. Grand Forks was not even 
a voting precinct, and all of the valley was Pembina County, which was the only 
civil organization in what is now the state. There was a postoffice at Pembina, 
Fort Totten, old Fort Ransom, and Abercrombie, but that was all. Much of the 
state was an unknown land, visited only by Indians, traders, missionaries and 
Government expeditions. Fremont visited Devils Lake in 1839. Catlin came 
and saw but went away without conquering, in 1841. Sully and Sibley visited 
parts in 1862 and 1863. Hatch's battalion occupied Pembina in 1862. Lewis 
and Clark had visited the Missouri River region in 1805, and it was their report 
which gave the world the first idea of the unparalleled resources of the North- 
west and led to its general occupation by traders. The John Jacob Astor Com- 
pany, formed in 1808, occupied the Missouri and the James River Valley for a 
time, but the War of 1812 forced their consolidation with the North-Western, 
which in turn was consolidated with the Hudson's Bay Company. Then came 
the Columbia Fur Company, which occupied all of this region for a time, but 
gave place to the independent traders who disputed the ground with the Hud- 
son's Bay Company until after the settlers of 1870 came into possession of a 
goodly portion of the land. The theme is interesting, but let us glance at the 
later development. 

"Twenty-five years ago, in all North Dakota there were only watchers and 
waiters for the Northern Pacific Railroad crossing the Red River, bent on town- 
site speculation, and these could be counted on the fingers of your two hands, 
outside the settlement at Pembina, and the occasional wood chopper or keeper of 
the stage stations along the river and those at the military posts. * * * 

"In the early history of the Red River Valley the Hudson's Bay Company 
had a line of vessels running from Hudson's Bay to England, which made annual 
trips, bringing the mail and supplies once a year and carrying back the following 
summer the winter catch of furs. In mid-winter dog sledges were sometimes 
sent through to Montreal with later communications and orders for goods to be 
delivered the following August. Subscribers for the London papers received 
365 copies at one time and even in our day the wife of our oldest settler, Mrs. 
Cavileer, a descendant of one of the original Selkirk settlers, informs us the 
subscriber read only one copy a day, that of the corresponding day of the year 
before. It was not until Commodore Kittson arrived at Pembina in 1843 and 
established a trading post, which soon led to monthly mails, that the system of 
yearly mails was improved upon." 



PART IV 



CHAPTER XXIV 
DIVISION OF THE TERRITORY 

The Territory of Dakota was organized by the Congress of the United States 
by the act of March 2, 1861. Prior to the passage of this act by Congress, a few 
enterprising spirits had crossed the confines of Minnesota and Iowa, and estab- 
Hshed homes along the banks of the big Sioux and Missouri rivers, and founded 
the cities of Sioux Falls, Vermilion and Yankton, but settlements in North Dakota 
were principally at Pembina, until the Northern Pacific Railroad crossed the Red 
River and founded the City of Moorhead on the east bank and Fargo on the west. 
From that time forward settlers, attracted by the liberal provisions of the home- 
stead law, and the rich agricultural lands of the Red River Valley, poured into 
Xorth Dakota in streams, and the population increased from 2,405 in 1870 
to approximately one hundred and eighty thousand in 1889, when Dakota 
was divided on the seventh standard parallel and North Dakota admitted as a 
state in October, 1889. The act of Congress creating the territory is known as 
the "Organic Act" — it was the constitution of the territory, its charter of govern- 
ment. A territory is a state in a chrysalis form, and the bonds which clothe this 
chrysalis form are broken only with the consent of Congress. 

In states, all the sovereign power is in the people, but so far as a territory is 
concerned, the sovereign power is lodged in Congress. A territory has no original 
or sovereign power of legislation, all its powers are delegated by Congress, and 
while the people of the state may create governments with legislative, executive 
and judicial powers, the people of a territory cannot do so until authorized by 
Congress. 

The enterprising, virile people who had established homes in the territory had 
come largely from the old states, though many came from the northern states of 
Europe and Canada. They understood the principles upon which this government 
was founded, and were restive under the territorial form, regarding it as servile, 
and therefore intolerable. They wanted relief from the irresponsibility of 
appointed rulers and judges, and a voice in the selection of those who should 
govern them. The rapid increase in the population and material wealth demanded, 
as its people believed, for the promotion of their welfare and the betterment of 
the varied interests, a more permanent form of government than was possible 
under the territorial form prescribed by Congress. 

The division of the Territory of Dakota into two states or territories on an 
east and west line along the seventh standard parallel was a burning question from 
the creation of the territory until its consummation in 1889. Hence a brief review 
of the territorial days is essential to a clear understanding of the causes and 

Vol. 1—24 

369 



370 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

influences which induced Conc^ress to form the State of North Dakota, and admit 
it as a sovereign state to the Union. 

The Territorial Legislature of 187 1 adopted a memorial to the Congress, pray- 
ing for the division of the territory on the forty-sixth parallel of latitude, and 
similar memorials were adopted by the Legislatures of 1872, 1874, 1877. The 
construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad across the state to Bismarck in 1873 
intensified the interest of the people in division, and from that time forward the 
movement for division constantly figured in congressional annals. 

As early as 1873, Senator Ramsey of Minnesota introduced a bill in the United 
States Senate for a territory for the north half, to be known as Pembina. The 
bill was defeated. In 1875, Senator Windom of Minnesota introduced a bill in 
the United States Senate for the creation of the Territory of North Dakota, and 
providing a temporary government therefor. This bill was favorably reported 
from the committee on territories in the Senate and passed by the Senate. It 
went to its death in the committee of territories in the House. The question of 
division and admission was before every session of Congress, either by bills on 
division and admission, by petitions of residents of the territory, memorials of its 
Legislatures or by resolutions of conventions called to consider the subject, for 
a period of sixteen years. 

The real battle for division and admission began in the territorial legislative 
session of 1883. That assembly established a university at Grand Forks, an 
insane asylum at Jamestown, and a penitentiary at Bismarck. It authorized the 
issuance of bonds to construct necessary buildings, and provided that in the event 
of division, the bonds should be assumed and paid by North Dakota, and made 
quite liberal appropriation, in view of the financial condition of the territory, for 
the maintenance of these institutions for the ensuing two years. It also located 
an agricultural college at Fargo, but made no appropriation therefor. The loca- 
tion was conditioned upon the donation of a suitable site of at least forty acres 
by the citizens of Fargo. The condition was never complied with, and there was 
no agricultural college in the north half of the territory until statehood. It located 
the Normal School at Minto, in Walsh County, but made no appropriation there- 
for. That assembly also passed an act for the removal of the capital from Yank- 
ton, through a capital commission of nine persons, who were authorized and 
empowered to remove the capital from Yankton, and locate it at some place more 
convenient and accessible to the people generally. It was urged as a reason there- 
for that the great railroad systems which now traverse the State of South Dakota 
would, in the selection of a site by the Legislature, control the location to the 
detriment of the people, whose interests would be better safeguarded by a com- 
mission. The Legislature left the selection of the site to the judgment of the 
commission, but as a majority of the commission were from that part of the 
territory now constituting the State of South Dakota, it was assumed that some 
town in the central portion thereof would be selected. 

Some members of the Legislature who voted in favor of the law creating the 
commission claimed there was a passive understanding, in fact an agreement by 
the proponents of the measure, that the commission w^ould select as a site for the 
"seat of government" the Town of Redfield, situated in nearly the central part of 
South Dakota, and save for this understanding the commission scheme would 
have been defeated. No proof of such agreement was ever forthcoming, and the 





RICHARD F. PETTIGREW 

Came to .Sioux Falls in 1869. Territorial 
legislator, delegate to Congress in 1881 and 
first United States senator from South 
Dakota. 



.irDi;K .IKFFERSOX P. KIDDICK. lSf..5 

Delegate to Congress from 1875 to 1879. 
.ludge of the United States District Court, 
first Dakota district from 1865 to 1875 and 
from 1879 to 1883. Died in olKce. 





ilOKGAX T. RICH 

First settler at Wahpeton. for whom 
Richland County was named. 



HEXRY CLAY HAXSBROUGH 

First mayor of Devil's Lake: first mem- 
ber of Congress from North Dakota 1889- 
1891; United States senator 18911909. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 371 

fact that Aberdeen, Huron, Sioux Falls and Pierre, in South Dakota, vigorously 
competed for the location seemingly negatives such claimed agreement. 

The committee visited all the localities in South Dakota which offered induce- 
ments for the capital location, and inspected a location at the south end of Devils 
Lake, and also Bismarck, in North Dakota. 

The act creating the commission left it untrammeled in the selection of the 
site, save that the place chosen should donate to the territory at least i6o acres 
of land and contribute $100,000 for the erection of a capitol building. Bismarck 
complied with these conditions and in June, 1883, at a meeting of the commission 
held at Fargo, Bismarck was selected by a vote of five to four, as the "seat of 
government." 

The business men of Fargo filed a protest against the selection of Bismarck, 
and demanded that Burleigh F. Spalding, a resident of Fargo, and a member of the 
commission, vote against Bismarck. Alexander Hughes, WilHam E. DeLong and 
John P. Belding of South Dakota, Alexander McKenzie and Milo W. Scott of 
North Dakota, voted for Bismarck. B. F. Spalding voting for Redfield. This 
selection surprised the people of the territory. South Dakota was wild in its 
protestations, denouncing the act of the commission in the strongest possible 
terms. 

L'pon the relation of the district attorney of Yankton, an action was instituted 
in the nature of "Quo Warranto" to oust the commission from office, on the 
ground that the law was in contravention of the "Organic Act," which provided 
that the seat of government should be selected by the governor, and the Legislative 
Assembly, and that the Legislature could not lawfully delegate the right and 
power to a commission to remove the capital and locate it elsewhere. 

The commission answered this complaint, and the cause was tried before Chief 
Justice Edgerton, at Yankton. Motions for judgment were made by both parties 
upon the pleadings. The motion of the district attorney for Yankton was sus- 
tained and on August 27, 1883, Judge Edgerton rendered judgment: 

"That said defendants, and each of them, be and they are hereby forever 
ousted and excluded from said office of commissioners mentioned in said action 
in the complaint described, and from all franchise and privileges made, enumer- 
ated or included therein." 

The chief justice filed no written opinion stating the grounds upon which the 
judgment was based. From this judgment the commission appealed to the 
Supreme Court of the territory. The leading counsel for the commission was 
William F. Vilas, of Madison, Wis., who afterwards became a member of the 
cabinet of Grover Cleveland. He was ably assisted by W. P. Clough of St. Paul, 
later vice president of the N. P. Railway, and Alexander Hughes of Yankton, 
who was a member of the commission, and also the attorney-general of the terri- 
tory, an office which had been created by the Legislature of 1883. The respond- 
ents were represented by Bartlett Tripp, a notably able lawyer ; Gideon C. Moody, 
afterwards a L^nited States senator from South Dakota; John R. and Robert J. 
Gamble, later elected to Congress and the United States Senate, respectively, 
from South Dakota : and Ellison G. Smith, the district attorney, all being resi- 
dents of Yankton. 

This array of counsel filed exhaustive briefs covering every phase of the 
subject and supplemented the briefs by oral argument to the court. A majoritv 



372 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

of the court after due consideration reversed the judgment of the District Court, 
deciding: 

"That in their opinion the appellants were lawfully entitled to exercise the 
duties of their appointment under the act in question." 

Chief Justice Edgerton dissenting held: 

"From the whole case I must conclude that the act of the Territorial Legis- 
lature creating the capital commission was unwarranted and invalid." 

The act of the commission in selecting Bismarck as the seat of government 
unified the people of North Dakota. It increased the discontent prevailing in 
the southern part of the territory and hastened division, 

CONVENTIONS 

A convention of i88 delegates representing thirty-four counties in the south- 
ern portion of the territory assembled in Huron in June, 1883, and demanding 
a division of the territory on the forty-sixth parallel, provided for a convention to 
meet at Sioux Falls and frame a constitution. This convention met in Septem- 
ber, 1883, and after a session of fourteen days formulated a constitution and 
submitted it to the electors in the forty-two counties of South Dakota, by whom 
it was adopted. This constitution was submitted to Congress and on February 
2gth Benjamin Harrison, then a senator from Indiana, and chairman of the 
Committee on Territories, reported from that committee a bill to enable the peo- 
ple of that portion of the state south of the forty-sixth parallel to become a state. 
The bill was recommited by the Senate, but again reported on March 19, 1884. It 
was considered by the Senate December 9, 1884, and passed the Senate Decemljer 
16, 1884. It was messaged to the House and failed of passage there. 

North Dakota also held conventions. One was called to meet at Fargo Jan- 
uary 4, 1882, to take some action favoring the admission of the territory as a 
whole, or its division. It appointed a committee to proceed to Washington and 
urge Congress to divide the territory. 

In 1887 the north half of the territory sent delegates to a convention which 
assembled at Aberdeen. Brown County was the only county in South Dakota 
represented. This convention adopted a resolution which declared that the ter- 
ritory should be divided into two states, the north half to be named North Dakota. 

A third convention met at Jamestown in 1888. It adopted a memorial on the 
division of the territory in the two parts and the admission of both North and 
South Dakota as states, and appointed a committee to present this memorial to 
Congress. 

The Territorial Legislature which assembled at Bismarck in January, 1885, 
adopted and forwarded to Congress a memorial providing for the admission of 
South Dakota as a state. This memorial was an able document. In intense, 
pertinent and trenchant language it enumerated reasons why division should be 
had, and the admission of South Dakota as a state be granted, but Congress 
failed to act thereon until December 15, 1885. In the meantime a second consti- 
tutional convention was held at Sioux Falls, in September, 1885 ; it framed and 
submitted a constitution which was ratified by the people of South Dakota, by an 
overwhelming vote. 

This constitution and the memorial of the Legislature of 18S5 were pre- 



■"*■ 




>. 



i 





ARTHUR C. MELLETTE 

Tenth governor of Dakota Territory, March to 
November, 1889 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 373 

sented to the Senate by its president pro tem., John Sherman, on December 15, 
1885. Senator Harrison introduced a bill to admit South Dakota as a state, and 
to organize the Territory of North Dakota, on that date. This bill with an amend- 
ment substituting Lincoln instead of North Dakota, as the name of the new terri- 
tory, passed the Senate February 5, 1886. It was reported adversely by the 
House Committee on Territories. 

Bills were introduced in January, 1886, to admit the entire territory as a state, 
to divide the territory on the Missouri River, to organize the Territory of Lin- 
coln, to enable the people of the territory east of the Missouri to frame a consti- 
tution and be admitted as a state, to admit the entire' state and to organize the 
Territory of North Dakota. 

In the congressional sessions of 1887 and 1888, other bills were substituted 
for these. Bills which proposed the admission to statehood of Washington, 
Dakota, Montana, and New Mexico. A bill to admit Dakota passed the Senate, 
no bill to divide the territory and admit the states of North and South Dakota 
passed either house of Congress in 1887- 1888. 

The Territorial Legislature of 1887 submitted the question of division to a 
vote of the people, at the general election in November, 1887. The governor of 
the territory was empowered to proclaim the result of the election when it was 
certified to him by the proper canvassing board. The full returns of the election 
were not received until January 10, 1888, and on January 12, 1888, Governor 
Church issued his proclamation showing that 67,618 votes were cast, of which 
37,784 favored division, and 32,913 opposed. A majority of 4,871 for division. 
The counties in North Dakota gave a majority of 10,284 against division. Only 
four counties in North Dakota favored it, viz. : Burleigh, Grand Forks, Ramsey 
and Ward. 

LEGISLATIVE ACTION 

The resentment of South Dakota resulting from locating the capital at Bis- 
marck was forcibly shown in the Legislature of 1888. It re-enacted the law of 
1883 locating the agricultural college at Fargo, and authorized the issuance of 
bonds for the university to cover deficiencies incurred in the course of the con- 
struction of its buildings. It extended the time one year in which the citizens of 
Fargo could comply with the conditions prescribed in the law of 1883, but did 
not authorize the issuance of bonds to construct buildings, nor appropriate for 
its maintenance. 

The South Dakota members strenuously resisted appropriations for the main- 
tenance of the university, penitentiary and insane asylum. The capital commis- 
sion had issued warrants in payment of the excess of the cost of constructing 
buildings in a sum exceeding $30,000; it had incurred an indebtedness of $5,258.59 
for furniture to equip the offices of territorial officers and legislative halls, 
$4,198.45 for carpeting the same, $10,561.46 for heating apparatus and $1,415 
for plumbing. A prolonged struggle over these items continued until near the 
close of the session, when representatives of districts in South Dakota, in which 
public institutions were located, becoming alarmed at the possibility of the defeat 
of every appropriation to maintain them, agreed to the expedient of omnibussing 
all appropriations and combining with a solid North Dakota vote, passed in the 



374 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

House a law appropriating for all the institutions north and south, for the 
maintenance of the capitol and for payment of the indebtedness incurred by the 
capital commission excepting the warrants for capitol construction. The Legis- 
lative Council refused to concur in many of the provisions of this bill and it was 
referred to a conference committee to adjust the differences between the respective 
houses. The conference continued a number of days, the House adhered to the 
omnibus bill and the Council finally yielded its opposition, and agreed to the bill 
with a proviso added : 

"Not to be construed as a ratification or endorsement of the acts of the com- 
mission locating the capital at Bismarck." 

As a further step in the direction of statehood, this session made provision 
for a census. It divided the territory into two districts, and Maj. Alanson W. 
Edwards, of Fargo, was selected to superintend the taking of the census of North 
Dakota. He reported to the national Government a total population of 152,199 in 
North Dakota. This was greater than the ratio prescribed for a congressman, and 
the question of sufficient population to entitle North Dakota to statehood was 
settled. 

The difference between North and South Dakota gradually widened in 1886- 
87. South Dakota refused to be reconciled to the removal of the capital from 
Yankton. It controlled the Legislature of 1887, and the intention to continue the 
fight against the commission and other institutions was manifest in the early days 
of the session. Better counsels, however, prevailed and both sections were treated 
fairly in the distribution of the funds of the territory. It submitted, however, 
the question of division to a vote of the people at the general election in Novem- 
ber. The heavy vote against the division in North Dakota was a surprise, and 
was accounted for on the theory that the then democratic national organization 
was hostile to division and was unfavorable to admission to the Union, either as 
one or two states. The only evidence introduced to support this theory was the 
open opposition of leading democratic officials in both sections of the territory 
to division. 

The democratic counties polled heavily against division. The election of 
Benjamin Harrison as President in i'888 had a most salutary effect upon the divi- 
sion and admission of the Dakotas. As a senator he was a staunch advocate of 
division and admission. It was claimed that he might call a special session of Con- 
gress in March to take action on this subject. Confronted with this possibility, 
members of the House who had antagonized admission of any more states, 
"changed front" and pledged support to the Springer omnibus bill, which the 
House early in January considered. It amended the act which provided for the 
admission of Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho and New IMexico, by adding 
the words "In lieu of the State of Dakota, the states of North and South Dakota," 
and passed the bill as so amended. The Senate refused to concur in the House 
bill and eliminated Idaho and New Mexico therefrom, and requested a conference 
of the two Houses to compromise their differences and at once appointed the 
Senate conferees. The House agreed to the conference February 2d. The con- 
ference later reported a disagreement to the respective Houses. Their report 
was considered by the House, instructions were given and a second conference 
granted. The report of this conference was presented to the Senate on February 
20t1i and agreed to without division. It was forthwith transmitted to the House, 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 375 

which adopted the report and thus passed the bill which admitted the four states 
of North and South Dakota, Montana, and Washington into the Union. 

The bill was presented to President Cleveland for his signature, and he com- 
plied with the suggestion of Springer, who for reasons of sentiment desired the 
bill signed on the anniversary of the birth of George Washington, first President 
of the United States, and affixed his signature to the Enabling Act on February 
22, 1889. 

The last Territorial Legislature convened at Bismarck, in January, 1889, and 
in anticipation of statehood enacted but few laws outside of appropriations. 
There was no contest over these as in former years, and all institutions were 
allotted an equitable share of the prospective income of the ensuing two years. 
It authorized an election be held April 7, 1889, to choose delegates to a constitu- 
tional convention to be held at Grafton, on the second Tuesday of May, 1889, 
the act to be inoperative if Congress passed an "enabling act'' prior to the date 
of holding the election. 

This was the most important act passed and over which a good natured con- 
test was had in designating the place of holding it. The South Dakota members 
of the Legislature left the selection to the North Dakota members, and agreed 
to vote for the place which received a majority vote of the North Dakota mem- 
bers. Grafton won. 

The following statement as to Governor Ordway was written by this writer 
in 1889: 

"Ex-Governor Ordway, who had served twelve years as sergeant-at-arms and 
paymaster of the United States House of Representatives, and several terms in 
both branches of the New Hampshire Legislature, was appointed governor of 
Dakota in May, 1880, to succeed Governor William A. Howard, who died at 
Washington, while filling out a term as governor of Dakota. Governor Ord- 
way, having had pretty large experience in public life, determined to make himself 
personally acquainted with every part of the territory over which he was called 
upon to preside, and after having cleared up the executive work which had 
accumulated dtiring Governor Howard's illness at Yankton, started up the Mis- 
souri River to Fort Sully, where he took an ambulance across the Big Sioux 
reservation to the Black Hills, traversing the rolling prairies and taking account 
of the resources of that vast country which was still in the possession of the 
Indians. 

"The presence of the new governor in the Black Hills pleased the people, and 
the governor was royally entertained for nearly two weeks, during which he 
explored nearly all the principal mines, and procured large quantities of speci- 
mens, to be forwarded by express, to make up an eastern exhibit, which he was 
co-operating with the Northern Pacific Railroad in arranging, with the view of 
bringing in immigration and developing the country. From the Black Hills he 
took transportation 230 miles to Bismarck, in the north ; and thence, examining 
the famous wheat fields and procuring specimen products in the James, Red and 
.Sioux River valleys, returned to the Missouri River Valley and Yankton, the 
seat of government. Remaining there for a period to attend to accumulated 
business, he afterwards shipped the products thus secured to Chicago, to be 
placed in the elegant car specially built by the Northern Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany, for a complete exhibit of the products of Dakota and other territories on 



376 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTPI DAKOTA 

their line, which was en route for' the New England Agricultural Fair, to be held 
at Worcester, Alass., in September, i8So. The governor, by special invitation, 
accompanied this exhibit, which embraced almost everything grown in the various 
counties in Dakota, and was the guest of the City of Worcester and the New- 
England Agricultural Society for the entire week of the fair. During this time 
many thousands of people visited the car, and entered their names upon a register 
prepared for that purpose, requesting printed documents giving information as 
to the resources of this new country and its vast wheat fields. The governor 
remained east until November, only returning to Yankton in season to cast his 
vote at the November election. During this period the exhibition car was taken 
all over New England and a considerable portion of the Canadas, thus securing 
the names and addresses of nearly two hundred thousand land seekers or appli- 
cants for informatiofi in regard to the new Northwest. This exhibition of the 
resources of Dakota undoubtedly started and kept in motion the unprecedented 
boom which followed in 1881, and continued during nearly all of Governor 
Ordway's term. 

"The Territorial Legislative Assembly convened at Yankton in January, 1881, 
at which time the governor found himself confronted with very grave responsi- 
bilities. The territorial laws required the governor to make contracts with the 
managers of insane hospitals and officers of penal institutions in adjoining states, 
for the keeping of all the indigent insane and convicts sentenced and decreed to 
be confined in the territory. This requirement was practically impossible, as the 
insane hospitals in adjoining states were all filled to overflowing, and there was 
no desire on the part of any of the states to increase the number of convicts in 
any of these institutions. The outstanding securities of the territory bearing 
10 per cent interest were selling at 80 cents on the dollar, and there was not a 
piece of brick, stone or iron laid in any suitable public building. The governor 
earnestly called attention to this state of things in his first message, and by 
subsequent appeals secured the enactment of laws providing for the erection of 
a comparatively fire proof insane asylum at Yankton, and a stone penitentiary at 
Sioux Falls, for which bonds bearing 6 per cent interest were authorized. An 
appropriation was also secured for a small deaf mute asylum at Sioux Falls. 

"This first session of the Legislative Assembly was rather exciting, and at 
some times the relations between the legislative and the executive departments 
were considerably strained over the governor's determination to prevent the issue 
of any bonded indebtedness by counties or municipal corporations, unless the 
same had been approved by a vote of the people, the governor deeming this pre- 
caution necessary to keep down an incipient spirit of wildness, tending to repudia- 
tion. The records of the territory show that the governor withheld his signature 
to nearly or quite one-third of the acts passed by that Legislative Assembly. 

"Immediately following the adjournment of the Legislative Assembly, disas- 
trous floods caused by immense ice-gorges in the Missouri River, swept over a 
large portion of the lower Missouri and Sioux River valleys, carrying away 
houses and destroying thousands of horses, cattle and other domestic animals, 
and driving several thousand people from their homes, leaving them in a destitute 
condition. At the request of the mayor and an executive relief committee of the 
City of Yankton, Governor Ordway, who was at Washington, secured supplies 
from the war department for the immediate relief of the settlers, which were 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 377 

stored for feeding the Indians along the river, and subsequently the governor 
visited New York and Boston, endorsing the appeal made by the Yankton aid 
committee for aid, and was thus enabled to forward several thousands of dollars 
in money and seven or eight tons of clothing and other necessary supplies which 
the people of the East freely contributed to the sufferers by these disastrous floods. 

"During the summer of 1882 the governor made a tour of inspection through 
the center of the territory, traveling over the fertile prairies nearly four hundred 
miles from Yankton to Fort Totten, and in the fall of 1882 he made a very 
exhaustive report to the secretary of the interior of the condition and resources 
of the whole territory. 

"When the Legislative Assembly convened at Yankton in January, 1883, 
although the insane hospital at Yankton and the penitentiary at Sioux Falls had 
both been completed and placed in good running order, the capacity of these 
institutions was found to be entirely inadequate to the rapidly increasing require- 
ments. The governor recommended the enlargement of both these institutions, 
and secured aid from the United States for a wing to the penitentiary, which 
would accommodate prisoners sentenced by the United States courts. He also 
recommended an appropriation for a suitable stone structure as a deaf mute 
school, the small one previously provided for at Sioux Falls having got well 
under way, but not being fire proof'; and as under a previous act. Clay County 
and the City of \'ermilion had established the foundations for a small university, 
the governor recommended its enlargement and endowment by the territory, and 
a sufficient appropriation to found a creditable university for the southern portion 
of the territory. And, inasmuch as communication between the northern and the 
southern portion of the territory had to be carried on through Minnesota and 
Iowa, the governor advised that a large saving would be made by the erection of 
another penitentiary at Bismarck, on the Missouri River, which would be a great 
saving in the cost of transportation of prisoners from the Black Hills and the 
northern portion of the territory; also, that another insane asylum be provided 
for at Jamestown, and another university to accommodate the rapidly increasing 
population of the north, at Grand Forks, on the Red River. 

"In order to encourage a better and more thorough system of tilling this rich 
soil, the governor recommended and approved bills for the establishment of an 
agricultural college at Brookings, in the south ; also at Fargo, in the north ; and 
in order to secure a higher grade of teachers he advised the Legislature to endow 
a normal school at Madison, and another one of the same character at Spearfish, 
in the Black Hills, — thus giving the southern and the northern portions of 
the territory duplicate institutions, which would enable them to perform all the 
duties and obligations which are usually imposed upon states ; in fact laying the 
foundation for a division of the territory and the creation of two states. 

"The Legislative Assembly, realizing the phenomenal increase of population 
and taxable property in the territory, by a nearly two-thirds vote adopted all 
of the governor's suggestions, and made such appropriations as could safely be 
made within the approximate increase of the resources of the territory for the 
next two years, leaving, when these buildings were all completed, a 5 and 6 per 
cent bonded indebtedness of less than four hundred thousand dollars, which 
securities were sold by advertisement in the open market, at from 3 to 5 per 
cent above par. 



378 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

"Yankton being situated in the extreme southeast corner of the territorj-, and 
the development in the northern and central portion having become so great, 
tlie Legislative Assembly, without any suggestion from the governor, after the 
appointment of committees to consider the subject, decided by nearly a two- 
thirds vote to change the seat of government to some more central and accessible 
locality, provided some such town or place would erect and convey, without 
expense to the territory, a capitol building suitable for the transaction of the 
public business, with sufficient grounds for its completion and embellishment. 
The governor approved an act providing for commissioners to carry out the will 
of tlie Legislative Assembly, and a capitol was built and the seat of government 
changed thereunder from Yankton to Bismarck, which was exactly in the center 
east and west, but somewhat north of the geographical center of the territory'. 

"Thus at the end of Governor Ordway's tenii, the last of July, 1884, all these 
penal, charitable and educational institutions had been erected and put in suc- 
cessful operation and the capitol built and occupied, leaving a bonded indebted- 
ness of less than four hundred thousand dollars, to meet which there was a surplus 
in the territorial treasury of $200,ocx) towards paying this bonded indebtedness 
as it became due. The governor not only recommended and approved the acts 
for building all of these public buildings, but, as a member ex officio of the dif- 
ferent boards, he exercised a personal supervision over their construction, traveling 
all over the territory' to assist in laying out the grounds and attending to the 
organization and meetings of the various boards, without ever having presented 
a bill or drawn one dollar for the per diem and expenses which the officers of 
these institutions were entitled to receive under the territorial laws — the governor 
holding that the organic act of the territorj-. which must be regarded as its con- 
stitution, prohibited Federal officers from drawing salaries from the people of 
the territory. 

"After Governor Ordway retired from the executive office he organized the 
Dakota and Eastern Land and Loan Company, and gave his attention to securing 
eastern capital for the use of the settlers, through the First National Bank of 
Pierre, and the Capital National Bank of Bismarck, both of which institutions 
he organized, and he was the first president of each. 

"Governor Ordway served as a commissioner for Dakota, under an appoint- 
ment from Governor Pierce, on the centennial board of one from each state and 
territory, for celebrating the adoption of the constitution at Philadelphia, during 
the years 1886 and 1887, and honored Dakota by being placed by the full board 
of commissioners upon the executive committee for making all the arrangements 
for that historic gathering : was selected to respond at the great banquet for all 
the territtories : and on the day of the final ceremonies in front of Independence 
Hall, was selected, on account of his large acquaintance with the public men of 
the coimtn'. as a member of the committee on reception. He also represented 
Dakota in behalf of the governor, on the various boards during the year 1888 
of the proposed National Exposition, to be held in ^^'ashington in September, 
1889. 

"During the sessions of Congress in 1887 and 1888 he gave a large portion 
of his time at Washington seeking to impress upon the members of Congress 
and the friends of the Indians the advisabiHty and justice of opening to settle- 
ment such portions of the Indian reser\'ations as were not required or used by 




NEHEJnAH G. ORDWAY 
Seventh governor of Dakota Territory, 18S0-18S4 



< 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 379 

the Indians, especially a large portion of the great Sioux Reservation; watching 
the opportune moment, which came after the last presidential election, to secure 
division and immediate admission of North and South Dakota, without allowing 
it longer to continue a political question. 

"That it was largely due to Governor Ordway's long and intimate acquaintance 
with the older and controlling members of both Houses of Congress, and his 
accurate knowledge of the rules and the modes for overcoming the friction which 
was known to exist in regard to the manner of bringing in new states, no one in 
Dakota who was in Washington during that session of Congress will attempt to 
deny. Many members of both Houses of Congress, looking back over the diffi- 
cult and rugged road which the omnibus bill passed, have since expressed wonder 
that a bill of such far-reaching consequences to both political parties, as well as 
to the people of the territories, moving the political power westward to such an 
extent that New York will never hereafter be an essential pivot upon which 
presidential elections hang, could have been passed in so short a period. It will 
hardly be denied that ex-Governor Ordway has accomplished great results by 
giving his time in Washington during the sessions of Congress, to promote 
legislation for opening the reservation, and above all, by his work in bringing in 
the two Dakotas at the same time, and in placing North Dakota, in which he has 
made his home since the change of the seat of government to Bismarck, fully equal 
in every respect to its western sisters as a great and prosperous state." 

Governor Ordway was of the opinion that the admission of Dakota undivided 
would give a stronger state than if admitted as two states. In consenting to the 
capital commission bill it is clear that he hoped for the success of Pierre. 

The resolutions of the Fargo Convention of 1882 were strongly in favor of 
division. The delegates appointed were Judge Alphonso H. Barnes, delegate at 
large, with Col. Peter Donan alternate. A. A. Carpenter, Clement A. Lounsberry, 
Wilbur F. Steele, George H. Walsh, H. G. Stone, J. S. Eschelman, M. J. Edgerly, 
Anton Klaus, Folsom Dow, H. B. Crandall, William Thompson, W. F. Clayton, 
Judson LaMoure, L. D. Austin and E. A. Healey. 

The memorial presented to the congressional committee at the hearing was 
drawn by this writer, who spent five winters in Washington favoring the division 
of Dakota before later advocates, who gained prominence and preference by 
reason of such action, came to the territor}'. 

HON. ALEXANDER MCKEXZIE 

No history of the State of North Dakota would be complete, or entitled to 
credit, without reference to Alexander McKenzie. He has been a part of that 
history to a greater extent than any other living man. He has been identified 
with the history of the state. almost from the very beginning of its territorial life. 
He kept in touch with it, laboring for its development during all of its years of 
development as a territory, and since its admission to statehood, prospering not 
as a money loaner, banker or merchant, but as the result of investment in North 
Dakota real estate and in North Dakota securities. He has held no office ex- 
cepting that of deputy United States marshal and sheriff and a director on the 
Bismarck penitentiary board, during the construction of that institution, nor 
has he sought office, either in the state or nation. He was appointed by the 



380 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

governor, however, to take charge of an exhibit made by the territory at the 
New Orleans Exposition, where much was accomplished for the good of Da- 
kota, and where he formed acquaintances which had much to do with establish- 
ing the credit of the state and incidentally in securing a market for state or 
county securities in which he became a heavy dealer. He was Republican Na- 
tional Committeeman for North Dakota during the Roosevelt administration, 
succeeded by James Kennedy of Fargo in 1912. 

Alexander McKenzie came to North Dakota in 1868 with Don Stevenson's 
train carrying supplies to Fort Rice. There he was employed by the military 
authorities to carry important dispatches to Fort Buford, passing through a 
country infested with hostile Indians. 

He returned in 1872, then a young man of twenty-two, in connection with 
the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and during that summer 
he had charge of the track laying on the line west from Fargo. After the com- 
pletion of the railroad to Bismarck, in June, 1873, he was interested in the 
manufacture and sale of carbonated drinks, and after the organization of the 
county in 1873, and the election of the first county officers in 1874, he was 
appointed sherifT to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Sheriff Miller, who 
was drowned, together with his deputy Charles McCarthy, by going through 
an air hole in the ice on the Missouri River. He was elected sherifif at the 
ensuing election, in 1876, and thereafter for ten years, when he declined to 
be a candidate for re-election. During all of this time he was deputy United 
States marshal, and while in office was instrumental in ridding the country 
of more than one hundred criminals of greater or less degree who had sought 
asylum or business in the opportunities offered by the opening of the Northern 
Pacific country. 

McKenzie had been with the Northern Pacific from the beginning of its 
construction and he knew the methods and the faces of every crook on the 
line, and was able to spot any new arrival almost instantly, and was peculiarly 
fitted to the work on which he was engaged. He was in St. Paul one day 
when a most atrocious murder was perpetrated. He took up the work of inves- 
tigation on his own account and from force of habit, and through information 
he was able to give, the authorities landed their man inside of forty-eight hours. 

In his pursuit of criminals, some of whom took refuge in the Indian camps, 
McKenzie took desperate chances, but he never flinched. He gained the ad- 
miration of Gaul and other noted Sioux Indian chiefs by arrests made in 
their own camps in the face of demonstrations by the Indians which seemed to 
threaten certain death. 

It was through him that Gaul, Rain-in-the-Face and other noted Indians 
became a part of the exhibit at New Orleans, and that Sitting Bull was at the 
head of the procession at the time of the laying of the corner stone of the cap- 
itol at Bismarck. 

He was successful in the pursuit of steamboats attempting to leave the 
country without paying for wood or supplies procured from settlers or mer- 
chants. Without resorting to the third degree, as the badgering of prisoners 
is now styled, there was that about him which led the large majority to plead 
guilty. He had the evidence where there was real guilt, and there were few 
mistrials. 



I 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA . 381 

Born of sturdy Scotch ancestry he spoke the mother tongue of his country- 
men, winning confidence that might not have been reached by other means. 
No friend of his had to appeal for help that he could give, in the hour of 
real distress, and many a person received timely aid without ever knowing 
the source from which it came, for McKenzie always has taken pride in not 
letting one hand know what the other has done. From the talk others have 
given he has gained many a valuable pointer, sometimes for their own un- 
doing. He leaves the boasting to others. His fame was not confined to Bur- 
leigh county, but in every village, and on the lonely ranches, and among the 
sturdy farmers he had friends, or old time chums, ready to dare or do as he 
requested. 

About 1880 he had charge of an exhibit made by Burleigh County at an expo- 
sition at Minneapolis, and Burleigh County won the banner which was then and 
has been all of the years since then a source of great pride. It was for the best 
grain and vegetables on exhibition. It served to attract wide attention to North 
Dakota and was the beginning of the great boom which followed. This was fol- 
lowed by the exhibit made by him on behalf of Dakota at the New Orleans 
Exposition, the influence of which was enduring. He asked the several counties 
of the territory to contribute, to be refunded by the Legislature. While some 
twenty thousand dollars was raised in this way and was refunded by the Legisla- 
ture, Mr. McKenzie advanced the money in the first instance and added to it 
some twenty thousand dollars of his own money which was not refunded. But 
he won much credit for himself and glory and honor for the territory. 

In 1882 he attended the session of the Legislature at Yankton and it was 
through his persistent labor that North Dakota gained its set of territorial institu- 
tions, the penitentiary being located at Bismarck, the Agricultural College at Far- 
go and the University at Grand Forks. This was the foundation for the action 
which followed in locating these and other institutions, in the constitution of the 
state, which was accomplished on the suggestion and through the planning and 
work of Alexander McKenzie, including the location of the capital at Bismarck. 

While he did not go to Yankton for the purpose of securing the location of 
the capital of the territory of Dakota at Bismarck, he saw the opportunity and 
■-(ccomplished his purpose. 

To discredit Governor Ordway, Yankton parties caused his arrest and fixed 
his bond at $50,000. McKenzie furnished that amount of currency for his bail, 
which was reduced to a reasonable sum and nothing ever came of the prosecution. 

After the location of the capital at Bismarck he did not take advantage of the 
boom to sell real estate, by reason of such location, but held on and is today reaping 
the advantage that he foresaw. 

To him, even more than to Governor Ordway, was due the successful efforts 
in Congress to secure the division of Dakota and the admission of North Dakota 
as a state. 

He was not the tool of any man or set of men. He had the magnetic power 
to draw allies to his assistance and the power of organization to hold them 
together and make them willing helpers. He does not appear in any biographies 
of pioneers, legislators or other characters, but his name should lead all others in 
writing of those responsible for the material development of North Dakota. 



382 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

DAKOTA IN CONGRESS 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF DELEGATES, 1861-189O 

John B. S. Todd, a delegate from Dakota Territory ; born in Lexington, Ky., 
April 4, 1814; moved with his parents to Illinois in 1827; was graduated from 
the United States Military Academy in 1837 ; commissioned second lieutenant 
in the Sixth Infantry, July i, 1837; first lieutenant, December 10, 1837, and 
captain, November 8, 1843; served in the Florida war, 1837-1842, and the war 
with Mexico; resigned, September 16, 1856, and became an Indian trader; settled 
in Fort Randall, Dakota Territory ; elected to the Thirty-seventh Congress 
(March 4, 1861-March 3, 1863) ; successfully contested the election of William 
Jayne to the Thirty-eighth Congress and served from June 17, 1864, to March 3, 
1865; appointed brigadier general of volunteers in the Union army, September 

19, 1861 ; appointment expired July 17, 1862; served as speaker of the Dakota 
House of Representatives, 1867; governor of Dakota Territory, 1869-1871 ; died 
in Yankton, Dakota Territory, January 5, 1872. 

William Jayne, a delegate from Dakota Territory ; born in Springfield, 111., 
October 8, 1826; completed preparatory studies; studied medicine and practiced 
in Springfield eleven years; mayor of Springfield, 1859-1861; apppointed gov- 
ernor of Dakota Territory by President Lincoln in 1861, and served two years, 
with residence in Yankton ; presented credentials as the delegate-elect to the 
Thirty-eighth Congress, and served from March 4, 1863, to June 17, 1864, when 
he was succeeded by John B. S. Todd, who contested his election ; returned to 
Springfield, III.; president of the Lincoln Memorial Library; president of the 
State Board of Charities under Governors Yates and Deneen. 

Walter A. Burleigh, a delegate from Dakota Territory; born in Waterville, 
Alaine, October 25, 1820 ; attended public schools ; studied medicine in Burling- 
ton, Vt., and in New York City, and began practice in Richmond, Maine; moved 
to Kittanning, Pa., in 1852 ; declined a foreign mission tendered by President 
Lincoln in 1861 ; Indian agent. Greenwood, Dakota Territory, 1861-1865; elected 
a delegate to the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses (March 4, 1865-March 3, 
1869) ; elected to the upper house of the Territorial Legislature in 1877, and 
served two terms ; removed to Miles City, Montana Territory ; member of the 
state convention that framed the constitution of Montana; served in the first 
State Legislature; prosecuting attorney of Custer County; state senator from 
Yankton County in 1893; died in Yankton, S. D., March 8, 1896. 

Solomon L. Spink, a delegate from Dakota; born in Whitehall, N. Y., March 

20, 1831 ; completed preparatory studies; taught school several years; studied 
law, was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Burlington, Iowa, in 1856; 
moved to Paris, 111., in i860, and began the publication of the Prairie Beacon; 
served in the State Legislature; secretary of the Territory of Dakota. 1865-1869; 
elected as a republican delegate to the Forty-first Congress (March 4, i86g- 
March 3, 1871) ; resumed the practice of law in Yankton, S. D., until his death 
there, September 22, 1881. 

Moses K. Armstrong, a delegate from the Territory of Dakota ; born in 
Milan, Ohio, September 19, 1832; attended the Huron Institute and Western 
Reserve College, Ohio; moved to the Territory of Minnesota in 1856; elected 
surveyor of Mower County, and assigned to survey of the United States lands 




DR. WALTER A. BURLEIGH 

United States agent to Yankton Indians, 1861-1865. Delegate to 
Congress from 1865 to 1869 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 383 

in 1858; went to Yankton, then a small Indian village, when the territory was 
admitted as a state ; was a member of the First Territorial Legislature ; re-elected 
in 1862 and 1863, and served as speaker; edited the Dakota Union in 1864; 
appointed clerk of the Supreme Court in 1865 ; elected to the territorial council 
in 1866, and in 1867 chosen speaker; acted as secretary of the Indian Peace Com- 
mission in 1867; established the great meridian and standard lines for United 
States surveys in Southern Dakota and Northern Red River Valley; again elected 
to the territorial council in 1869; elected as a democrat a delegate to the Forty- 
second and Forty-third congresses (March 4, 1871-March 3, 1875) ; moved to 
St. James, Minn., and engaged in banking and real estate business; died in Albert 
Lea, Minn., January 11, 1906. 

Jefferson P. Kidder, a delegate from Dakota Territory ; born in Braintree, 
Vt., June 4, 1818; attended the common schools; farmed and taught school; 
pursued classical studies and was graduated from Norwich University ; studied 
law and was admitted to the bar; member of the State Constitutional Conven- 
tion of 1843; state attorney, 1842-1847; member of the State Senate, 1847-1848; 
lieutenant governor, 1853-1854; moved to St. Paul, Minn., in 1857; member of 
the State House of Representatives of Minnesota in 1861, 1863 and 1864; 
appointed by President Lincoln associate justice of the Supreme Court for 
Dakota Territory, February 16, 1865: reappointed by President Grant, April 3, 
1869, and reappointed March 3, 1873; elected as a republican, a delegate from 
Dakota Territory to the Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth congresses (March 4, 
1875-March 3, 1879) ; died in St. Paul, Minn., October 2, 1883. 

Granville G. Bennett, a delegate from the Territory of Dakota ; born in 
Butler County, Ohio, October 9, 1833 ; spent his youth in Fayette County, Ohio ; 
his parents moved to Fulton County, 111., in 1849, ^"d to Washington, Iowa, in 
1855, attended Howe's Academy, Mount Pleasant, and Washington College, 
Iowa; studied law and in 1859 began practice ia Washington; served in the 
Union army as a commissioned officer from July, 1861, to August, 1865 ; elected 
a member of the State House of Representatives in 1865 for two years, and to 
the State Senate in 1867 for four y-ears ; appointed associate justice of the 
Supreme Court of the Territory of Dakota, February 24, 1875; elected a dele- 
gate as a republican to the Forty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1879-March 3, 1881) ; 
after leaving Congress, resumed the practice of law in Yankton, S. D. 

Richard F. Pettigrew, a delegate and a senator from South Dakota; born in 
Ludlow, Vt., July, 1848; moved with his parents to Evansville, Rock County, 
Wis., in 1854; attended the academy; entered Beloit College in 1866; member of 
the law class in the University of Wisconsin in 1869; went to Dakota in July, 
1869, in the employ of a United States deputy surveyor; located in Sioux Falls; 
engaged in Government surveying and the real estate business until 1875 ; engaged 
in the practice of law ; elected to the Dakota Legislature as a member of the 
council in 1877 ^""^ re-elected in 1879; elected as a republican to the Forty- 
seventh Congress (March 4, 1881-March 3, 1883) ; elected to the territorial 
council in 1884 and 1885 ; elected to the United States Senate, October 16, 1889, 
under the provisions of the act of Congress admitting South Dakota into the 
Union, and sei-ved from December 2, 1889; re-elected in 1895, and served until 
March- 3, 1901 ; moved to New York City and practiced law; removed to Sioux 
Falls, S. D., 



384 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

John B. Raymond, a delegate from Dakota Territory; born in Lockport, 
Niagara County, N. Y., December 5, 1844; moved to Tazewell County, III, in 
1853; enlisted as a private in the Thirty-first Illinois Infantry in 1861 ; pro- 
moted to captain of Company E of that regiment after the siege of Vicksburg 
in 1863; served through the war and remained in Mississippi; published the 
Mississippi Pilot at Jackson, Miss., .during the reconstruction of that state and 
until 1877; appointed United States marshal of Dakota Territory; declined a 
reappointment; elected as a republican delegate to the Forty-eighth Congress 
(March 4, 1883-March 3, 1885) ; died in Fargo, N. D., January 3, 1886. 

Oscar S. Giiiford, a delegate and a representative from South Dakota; born 
in Watertown, N. Y., October 20, 1842; attended the common schools and pur- 
sued an academic course; served in the Union army as private in the Elgin 
(111.) Battery, 1863-1865; studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1870, and 
practiced; elected district attorney for Lincoln County in 1874; mayor of Can- 
ton, S. D., 1882-1883; member of the Constitutional Convention of Dakota which 
convened at Sioux Falls, September 7, 1883 ; elected as a republican, a delegate 
to the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth congresses (March 4, 1885-March 3, 1889); 
elected a representative upon the admission of the' state into the Union and 
served from December 2, i88g, to March 3, i8qi ; resumed the practice of law 
in Canton, S. D. 

LIST OF POSTOFFICES IN OPERATION IN NORTH DAKOTA WHEN STATE WAS FORMED, 

NOVEMBER 2, 1 889 

Barnes County — Alderman, Ashtabula, Barnes, Dailey, Dazey, Eckelson, Ells- 
bury, Hackett, Minnie Lake, Odell, Oriska, Sanborn, Uxbridge, Valley City, Svea, 
Svenby, Binghamton. 

Benson County — Abbottsford, Minnewaukan, Fort Totten, Obern, York, 
Pleasant Lake, Leeds, Knox, Viking. 

Billings County — Medora, Sentinel Butte. 

Boreman Coutny — Fort Yates. 

Bottineau County — Bottineau, Lordsburg, Tarsus, Sausahville. 

Buford County — Williston. 

Burleigh County — Bismarck, Cromwell, Mencken, Painted Woods, Sterling, 
Stewartsdale, Wogansport, Conger, Edberg, Slaughter, Wales, Crofte, Glascock, 
McKenzie. 

Cass County — Amenia, Argusville, Arthur, Aye, Buffalo, Casselton, Daven- 
port, Durbin, Eldred, Erie, Everest, Fargo, Gardner, Grandin, Harwood, Hick- 
son, Horace, Hunter, Kindred, Leonard. Mapleton, Noble, Norman, Page, Ripon, 
Tower City, Trysil, Watson, Wheatland. Wild Rice, Gill, Embden, Woods, 
Addison. 

Cavalier County — Hannah, Maida, Beaulieu, Alma, Easby. Elkwood, Gertrude, 
Milton, Mona, Olga, Osnabooch, Ridgefield, Romfo, Langdon, Mount Carmel, 
Woodridge, Vang, Soper, Byron, EUerton. Stilwell. 

Grand Forks County — Arvilla, Belleville. Gilby, Grand Forks. Inkster, Johns- 
ton, Larirrrore, Manvel, McCanna, Niagara, Northwood, Ojata, Reynolds, Thomp- 
son. Turtle River, Walle, Ori, Emerado, Holmes, Merrifield. Kempton, Mekinock, 
Bean, Cable, Kellys. 




OSCAR SHERJIAN GIFFDRD 

Pioneer of Lincoln County. Delegate to 

Congress from 1SS5 to 1889 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 385 

Emmons County — Buchanan, Emmonsburg, Gayton, Glencoe, Livona, Roop, 
Williamsport, Winchester, Winona, Omio, Armstrong, Exeter, Danbury, West- 
field, Hampton, Hull. 

Foster County — Barlow, Carrington, Larrabee, Melville, Glenfield. 

Dickey County — Ellendale, Lorraine, Ludden, Merricourt, Wright, Yorktown, 
Monango, Oakes, Glover, Guelph, Hillsdale, Silverleaf, Clement, Westboro, Ful- 
lerton, Boynton. 

Eddy County — New Rockford, Tiffany, Morris, Sheyenne. 

Griggs County — Cooperstown, Gallatin, Jessie, Helena, Ottawa, Romness, 
Hannaford. 

Garfield County — Fort Berthold. 

Kidder County — Dawson, McGuire, Steele, Tappen, Langedahl. 

Lamoure County — Dickey, Grand Rapids, La Moure, Russell, Litchville, 
Medbery, Griswold, Verona, Edgeley, Adrian, Newburg. 

Logan County — Napoleon, Steidl, King. 

McHenry County — Pendroy, Villard, Mouse River, Towner, Wines, Ely, 
Granville. 

Mcintosh County — Coldwater, Youngstown, Jewell, Ashley. 

McLean County — Coal Harbor, Conkling, Ingersoll, Washburn, Weller, Fal- 
coner, Turtle Lake, Hancock. 

Mercer County — Causey, Slaton, Stanton, Hazen, Deapolis, Krem. 

Morton County — Fort Abraham Lincoln, Glen Ullin, Mandan, New Salem, 
Sims, Hebron, Sweet Briar, Kurtz, Cannon Ball. 

Nelson County — Adler, Aneta, Baconville, Bue, Crosier, Harrisburgh, Lakota, 
Lee, Mapes. Michigan, Ottofy, Petersburg, McVille, Ruby, Sogn. 

Olive County — Hensler, Sanger, Harmon, Klein. 

Pembina County — Bathgate, Bay Center, Carlisle, Cavalier, Crystal, Drayton, 
Ernest, Gardar, Hallson, Hamilton, Hyde Park, Joliette, McConnell, Mountain, 
Neche, Pembina, Pittsburgh, Saint Thomas, Tyner, Walhalla, Nowesta, Stlkes- 
ville, Mugford, Welford, Glasston, Eyford, Prattford, Shepard, Thexton, Leroy, 
Backoo, Hensel, Bowesmont. 

Ramsey County — Bartlett, Crary, De Groat, Devils Lake, Grand Harbor, 
Jerusalem, Locke, Jackson, Church, Kildahl, Starkweather, Churchs Ferry, Scha- 
pera, Rutten, Fox Lake, Penn. 

Ransom County — Bonnersville, Buttzville, Elliott, Englevale, Fort Ransom, 
Lisbon, Owego, Plymouth, Scoville, Sheldon, Shenford. 

Richland County — Barnes, Christine, Colfax, Dwight, Fairmount, Fort Aber- 
crombie, Kougsberg, Mooreton, Wahpeton, Walcott, Wyndmere, Kloeppel, Power, 
Farniington, Hankinson, Lidgerwood, Seymour. Great Bend, De Villo. 

Rolette County — Dunseith, Island Lake, Saint Johns, Laureat, Belcourt, Bol- 
linger, Twala, Rolla. 

Sargent County — Brampton, Forman, Hamlin, Milnor, Ransom, Sargent, 
Tewaukon, Verner, Nicholson, De Lamere, Rutland, Harlem, Havana, Straub- 
ville, Cayuga, Genesee, Mohler. 

Stark County — Dickinson, Gladstone, Richardton, Taylor, Antelope, Belfield, 
South Heart. 

Steele County — Bellevyria, Colgate, Hope, Pickert, Golden Lake, Sherbrooke, 
Mardell, Sharon. 



386 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

■'i'"'St:evens County — Fort Stevens. 

Stutsman County — Atwill, Corinne, Eldridge, Esler, Gray, Jamestown, Pin- 
gree, Spiritwood, Windsor, Ypsilanti, Albion, Edmunds, Montpelier, Horn, Shar- 
low, Rio, Arrowwood, Medina, Karlopolis. 

Towner County — Cando, Coolin, Snyder, Cecil, Sidney, Pieton, Gleason, Han- 
son, Perth. 

Traill County — Bellmont, Blanchard, Buxton, Caledonia, Clifford, Cumings, 
Galesburg, Hague, Hatton, Hillsboro, Kelso, Mayville, Portland, Ouincy, Weible. 

Ward County — Burlington, Saint Carl, Minot, Des Lacs, Logan, Lone Tree, 
Echo, McKinney. 

Walsh County — Acton, Ardoch, Auburn, Conway, Edinburgh, Forest River, 
Gait, Grafton, Latona, Medford, Minto, Park River, Praha, Richmond, Saint 
Andrew, Silvista, Vesta, Walshville, Lambert, Kinloss, Tomey, Pisek, Cashel, 
Voss. 

Wells County — Sykeston, Oshkosh. 

Pierce County — Denney, Hurricane Lake. 

Hettinger County — New England City. 

Renville County — Joslyn. McKinney. 

Dunn County — Oakdale. 




FIRST HOUSE BUILT IN BURLINGTON IN APRIL, 1883. JAMES JOHNSON IN 

FOREGROUND 



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FIRST POSTOFFICE IN NORTHWESTERN NORTH DAKOTA 

Established at Burlington. .James .Johnson, first Postmaster 



CHAPTER XXV 

THE N'ORTH DAKOTA CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION- 
ENABLING ACT 

The admission of a state to the Union has in some instances been decided 
by Congress upon poHtical considerations. The right to admission when a ter- 
ritory has sufficient population and material resources to support a state govern- 
ment did not weigh with Congress as much as the pohtical advantage to the 
party then in control of the National Government. 

To illustrate : When Virginia passed an ordinance of secession, the people 
living in the mountains in the western portion repudiated secession and loyally 
adhered to the Union. Congress rewarded them by creating the State of West 
\ irginia and admitted it to the sisterhood of states. The vote of an additional 
state was required to ratify the thirteenth amendment abolishing slavery through- 
out the Union, and Congress carved out Nevada from California and admitted 
it as a state, and it cast the needed vote. The thirteenth amendment was ratified 
and slavery was forever abolished in the United States. 

In recent years an enabling act has, however, been deemed an essential 
prerequisite to admission. It is the general rule, and Congress has jealously 
guarded it. It has held that no inherent right existed in the people of a ter-- 
ritory to form a constitution and apply for admission to the Union without its 
consent, consequently it refused to recognize the constitution adopted by the 
people of South Dakota, prior to the enactment of the omnibus bill, approved 
February 22, 1889. 

States can change their constitutions independently of Congress, but such 
constitution must conform to the requisite compact, and establish a government, 
republican in form and consistent with the national constitution. 

The omnibus bill, which was the enabling act for the Dakotas, Montana and 
Washington, prescribed that the area in the Territory of Dakota should be 
"Divided on the line of the seventh standard parallel projected due west to the 
western boundary of said territory." 

The area lying north of this line to the boundary of Manitoba. Canada, to 
constitute the State or Territory of North Dakota, as might be determined by 
the inhabitants of this area, who were qualified voters of the Territory of 
Dakota. It further prescribed that this area should be apportioned into twentv- 
five districts, three delegates to a constitutional convention to be elected from 
each district by the qualified voters of the district, but "no elector shall vote for 
more than two persons for delegates to such convention." The governor, chief 
justice and secretary of the territory were to designate the districts in proportion 
to the population, as near as practicable "from the best information obtainable." 

387 



388 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

The territorial Legislature of 1885 by law authorized the taking of the 
decennial census under the provision of the Federal census law, which provided 
that any state or territory could take a census of its inhabitants at the expense 
of the Federal Government at the end of five years from the last preceding 
census, the census when completed to be transmitted to the National Census 
Bureau, to be compiled and published by counties. 

The territorial Legislature divided the territory into two districts ; one dis- 
trict comprised the area of North Dakota, the other the area of South Dakota. 
This census was the basis of the districts from which delegates were chosen. 

Upon the formation of such districts, the governor of the territory was 
authorized to proclaim an election to be held on Tuesday after the second Monday 
in May to choose the delegates to a constitutional convention, to be held at 
Bismarck, then the capital of the territory, on July 4, 1889, to "Form a consti- 
tution and State Government for a State to be known as North Dakota." 

It was a condition precedent before the formation of the constitution "that 
the convention should declare on behalf of the people of the proposed state that 
they adopted the Constitution of the United States." The constitution framed 
was to be "Republican in form, making no distinction in civil or political rights 
on account of race or color, except as to Indians not ta.xed, and be not repugnant 
to the Constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of 
Independence." 

The convention was required to provide in the constitution by "ordinance 
irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of the pros- 
pective state," to secure perfect toleration of religious sentiment, and that no 
inhabitant of the future state should be molested in person, nor deprived of his 
property on account of his mode of religious worship; to disclaim any right or 
title in any of the unappropriated public lands, or to any lands within the con- 
fines of any Indian or military reservation. These lands to remain within the 
exclusive jurisdiction and control of the L'nited States ; that lands of non-resi- 
dents should not be taxed at a higher rate than lands belonging to residents ; that 
no taxes be imposed upon lands or property belonging to the United States, or 
that might thereafter be purchased, or reserved for its use ; that the debts and 
liabilities of the territory shall be assumed and paid by the states ; that provision 
be made for the establishment and maintenance of a system of public schools 
open to all the children of the state, and free from sectarian control." 

In accordance with the provisions of the enabling act the following persons 
who had been elected delegates at the election held in May, 1889, pursuant to 
the call of the governor on the 15th day of April, 1889, assembled at Bismarck 
on the 4th day of July, 1889, at noon. 

MEMBERS AND OFFICERS OF THE NORTH DAKOT.'-i CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, 

1889 

R — republican ; D — democrat. 

Allin, Roger, R., Walsh County; postoffice. Grafton; occupation, farmer; 
born Dec. 18, 1848. 

Almen, John Magnus, R. ; Walsh County ; postofifice, Grafton ; occupation, 
farmer; born April 13, 1850. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 389 

Appleton, Albert Francis, D. ; Pembina County ; postoffice, Crystal ; occupa- 
tion, fanner; born Jan. 14, 1850. 

Bean, Therow W., R. ; Nelson County ; postoffice, Michigan City ; occupa- 
tion, lawyer; bom Oct. 17, 1859. 

Bell, James, D. ; Walsh County ; postoffice, Minto ; occupation, farmer ; born 
Aug. 24, 1850. 

Bennett, Richard, R. ; Grand Forks County; postoffice. Grand Forks; occu- 
pation, lawyer; born Dec. 4, 185 1. 

Bartlett Lorenzo D., D. ; Dickey County ; postoffice, Ellendale ; occupation, 
farmer; bom Oct. 19, 1829. 

Bartlett, David, R. ; Griggs County ; postoffice, Cooperstown ; occupation, 
lawyer; born Oct. 23, 1855. 

Best, William D., D. ; Pembina County ; postoffice, Bay Centre ; occupation, 
farmer; bom Aug. 23, 1853. 

Brown, Charles V., R. ; Wells County ; postoffice, Sykeston ; occupation, 
publisher; born Nov. 28, 1859. 

Blewett, Andrew, D. ; Stutsman County ; postoffice, Jamestown ; occupation, 
merchant; born Sept. 13, 1857. 

Budge, William, R. ; Grand Forks County ; postoffice, Grand Forks ; occupa- 
tion, merchant; born Oct. 11, 1852. 

Camp, Edgar Whittlesey, R.; Stutsman County; postoffice, Jamestown; 
occupation, lawyer ; born Feb. 27, i860. 

Chaffee, Eben Whitney, R. ; Cass County ; . postoffice, Amenia ; occupation, 
farmer; born Jan. 19, 1824. 

Garland, John Emmet, D. ; Burleigh County; postoffice, Bismarck; occupa- 
tion, lawyer; born Dec. 11, 1854. 

Carothers, Charles, R. ; Grand Forks County ; postoffice, Emerado ; occupa- 
tion, farmer; born Aug. 22, 1863. 

Clark, Horace M., R. ; Eddy County; postoffice, New Rockford; occupation, 
farmer; bom Sept. 6, 1850. 

Clapp, William J., R. ; Cass County ; postoffice, Tower City ; occupation, 
lawyer; born Nov. 28, 1857. 

Colton, Joseph L., R. ; Ward County ; postoffice, Burlington ; occupation, 
merchant ; born March 24, 1840. 

Douglas, James A., D. ; Walsh County ; postoffice. Park River ; occupation, 
farmer; born Feb. 13, 1847. 

Elliott, Elmer E., R. ; Barnes County ; postoffice, Sanborn ; occupation, mer- 
chant ; bom Dec. 25, 1861. 

Fancher, Frederick B., R. ; Stutsman County ; postoffice, Jamestown ; occu- 
pation, farmer ; born April 2, 1852. 

Fay, George H., R. ; Mcintosh County; postoffice, Ashley; occupation, 
lawyer; born Feb. 24, 1842. 

Flemington, Alexander D., R. ; Dickey County ; postoffice, Ellendale ; occu- 
pation, lawyer; born April 7, 1856. 

Gayton, James Bennett, R. ; Emmons County ; postoffice, Hampton ; occupa- 
tion, farmer; bom Nov. 10, 1833. 

Click, Benjamin Rush, D. ; Cavalier County ; postoffice, Langdon ; occupation, 
merchant ; born March 29, 1856. 



390 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Gray, Enos, D. ; Cass County; po'stoffice, Embden ; occupation, farmer; 
born Feb. 4, 1829. 

Griggs, Alexander, D. ; Grand Forks County ; postoffice, Grand Forks ; occu- 
pation, banker; born Oct. 27, 1838. 

Haugen, Arne P., R. ; Grand Forks County; postoffice, Reynolds; occupation, 
farmer; born June 7, 1845. 

Hegge, ]\Iarthinus F., D. ; Traill County ; postoffice, Hatton ; occupation, 
merchant; born Nov. 27, 1856. 

Holmes. Herbert L., R. ; Pembina County ; postoffice, Neche ; occupation, 
banker ; born May 29, 1853. 

Harris, Harvey, R. ; Burleigh County ; postoffice, Bismarck ; occupation, real 
estate; born Dec. 12, 1852. 

Hoyt, Albert W., R. ; Morton County ; postoffice, Mandan ; occupation, real 
estate; born July 5, 1846. 

Johnson, Martin N., R. ; Nelson County ; postoffice, Lakota ; occupation, law- 
yer ; born March 3, 1850. 

Lauder, William S., R. ; Richland County ; postoffice, Wahpeton ; occupation, 
lawyer ; bom Feb. 9, 1856. 

Leech, Addison, R. ; Cass County : postoffice, Davenport ; occupation, farmer ; 
born Feb. 20, 1824. 

Lowell, Jacob, D. ; Cass County ; postoffice, Fargo ; occupation, lawyer ; born 
May 7, 1843. 

Linwell, Martin \'.. R. ; Grand Forks County ; postoffice, Northwood ; occu- 
pation, lawyer; born April 2, 1857. 

Lohnes, Edward H., R. ; Ramsey County ; postoffice, Devils Lake ; occupa- 
tion, farmer; born April 22, 1844. 

Marrinan, Michael Kenyon, D. ; Walsh County; postoffice, Grafton; occupa- 
tion, lawyer ; born Nov. 4, 1853. 

Mathews. James H., R. ; Grand Forks County ; postoffice, Larimore ; occupa- 
tion, farmer; born Oct. 10, 1846. 

Meacham, Olney G., R. ; Foster County; postoffice, Carrington ; occupation, 
banker: born April 12, 1847. 

McBride, John, D. ; Cavalier County; postoffice. Alma; occupation, farmer; 
born May 22. 1850. 

Miller, Henry Foster, R. ; Cass County ; postoffice, Fargo ; occupation, law- 
yer; bom Sept. 13. 1846. 

Moer, Samuel H., R. ; Lamoure County ; postoffice, LaMoure ; occupation, 
lawyer; born June 21, 1856. 

McKenzie, James D., R. ; Sargent County; postoffice, Milnor; occupation, 
doctor ; born March 28, 1840. 

McHugh, Patrick, R. ; Cavalier County ; postoffice, Langdon ; occupation, 
banker: born Sept. 23. 1846. 

Noble, Virgil B., D. ; Bottineau County; postoffice, Bottineau; occupation, 
lawyer; bom Dec. 7, 1859. 

Nomland, Knud J., R. ; Traill County ; postoffice, Caledonia ; occupation, 
farmer: born Oct. 16. 1852. 

O'Brien. James F., D. : Ramsey County; postoffice, Devils Lake; occupation, 
lawyer: born July 6, 1853. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 391 

Parsons, Curtis P., R. ; Rolette County ; postoffice, Rolla ; occupation, pub- 
lisher; born May 6, 1853. 

Parsons, Albert Samuel, R. ; Morton County; postoffice, Mandan; occupa- 
tion, railroading; bom Aug. 16, 1856. 

Paulson, Engebret M., R. ; Traill County; postoffice, Mayville; occupation, 
farmer; born May 15, 1855. 

Peterson, Henry M., R. ; Cass County; postoffice, Horace; occupation, 
farmer; born July 11, 1857. 

Pollock, Robert M., R. ; Cass County ; postoffice, Casselton ; occupation, law- 
yer; born Dec. 16, 1854. 

Powers, John, D. ; Sargent County; postoffice, Havana; occupation, farmer; 
born Nov. 4, 1852. 

Powles, Joseph, R. ; Cavalier County; postoffice, Milton; occupation, farmer; 
born Dec. 6, 1850. 

Purcell, William E.,'D. ; Richland County; postoffice, Wahpeton ; occupation, 
lawyer; born Aug. 3, 1858. 

Ray, William, D. ; Stark County ; postoffice, Dickinson ; occupation, real 
estate; born Sept. — , 1852. 

Richardson, Robert B., R. ; Pembina County; postoffice, Drayton; occupation, 
farmer; born April 20, 1840. 

Robertson, Alexander D., R. ; Walsh County ; postoffice, Minto ; occupation, 
merchant ; born July 27, 1833. 

Rolfe, Eugene Strong, R. ; Benson County; postoffice, Minnevvaukan; occu- 
pation, lawyer; born Dec. 15, 1854. 

Rowe. William H., R. ; Dickey County; postoffice, Monango; occupation, 
merchant ; born Oct. 26, 1853. 

Sandager, Andrew, R. ; Ransom County ; postoffice, Lisbon ; occupation, mer- 
chant ; born Oct. 31, 1862. 

Shuman, John, R. ; Sargent County ; postoffice, Rutland ; occupation, farmer ; 
born July 13, 1836. 

Scott, John W., R. ; Barnes County ; postoffice. Valley City ; occupation, law- 
yer; born March 13, 1858. 

Selby, John F., R. ; Traill County; postoffice, Hillsboro ; occupation, lawyer; 
born Dec. 24, 1849. 

Slotten, Andrew, R. ; Richland County ; postoffice, Wahpeton ; occupation, 
farmer; born Sept. 16, 1840. 

Spalding, Burleigh Folsom, R. ; Cass County; postoffice, Fargo; occupation, 
lawyer; born Dec. 3, 1853. 

Stevens, Reuben N., R. ; Ransom County ; postoffice, Lisbon ; occupation, 
lawyer; born Aug. 10, 1853. 

Turner. Ezra, R. ; Bottineau County ; postoffice, Bottineau ; occupation, 
farmer; born Dec. 17, 1835. 

Wallace, Elmer D., R. ; Steele Coimty ; postoffice, Hope; occupation, farmer; 
born July 5, 1844. 

Whipple, Abram Olin, R. ; Ramsey County ; postoffice, Devils Lake ; occupa- 
tion, banker; bom April i, 1845. 

Wellwood, Jay, R. ; Barnes County; postoffice, Minnie Lake; occupation, 
farmer; born Nov. 11, 1858. 



392 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Williams, Erastus A., R. ; Burleigh County ; postoffice, Bismarck ; occupation, 
lawyer; bom Oct. 13, 1851. 

OFFICERS 

Frederick B. Fancher, president ; Stutsman County ; postoffice, Jamestown. 
John G. Hamilton, chief clerk ; Grand Forks County ; postoffice. Grand Forks. 
C. C. Bowsfield, enrolling and engrossing clerk; Dickey County; postoffice, 
Ellendale. 

Fred Falley, sergeant-at-arms ; Richland County ; postoffice, Wahpeton. 

J. S. Weiser, watchman; Barnes County; postoffice, Valley City. 

E. W. Knight, messenger ; Cass County ; postoffice, Fargo. 

Geo. Kline, chaplain ; Burleigh County ; postoffice, Bismarck. 

R. M. Tuttle, official stenographer ; Morton County ; postoffice, Mandan. 

POLITIC.\L COMPLEXION AND NATIVITY 

Republicans, 56; democrats, 19. Born in United States, 52 — Wisconsin, 13; 
New York, 10 ; Iowa, 5 ; Ohio, 4 ; Maine, 3 ; Pennsylvania, 3 ; Illinois, 2 ; Con- 
necticut, 2 ; Indiana, 2 ; Minnesota, 2 ; Vermont, 2 ; Massachusetts, i ; New Hamp- 
shire, i; New Jersey, i; Michigan, I. Born in other countries, 23 — Canada, 9; 
Norway and Sweden, 5; England, 3; Scotland, 3; Ireland, 2; New Brunswick, i. 
Ancestry — American, 22; English, 15; Irish, 12; Norwegian, Scandinavian and 
Swede, 10; Scotch, 6; Irish and Scotch, 3; Scotch-American, 2; Scotch and 
Danish, i; English-German, i; Dutch, i; German-Irish, i; Irish and Welsh, i. 

ORGANIZATION 

They organized the convention by the election of Frederick B. Fancher, of 
Jamestown, as president, and John G. Hamilton, of Grand Forks, as chief clerk, 
and proceeded to frame the constitution of the state in conformity with the 
conditions and restrictions imposed by the enabling act. 

It is an interesting and notable fact that forty-five of the seventy-five dele- 
gates were elected from the Red River Valley counties and counties immediately 
adjacent thereto. Twenty-six between the valley counties and east of the Mis- 
souri River, and nineteen from the vast area west of the Missouri River. 

The delegates were representative men of the professions and of the agricul- 
tural and varied business interests of North Dakota. One-third were lawyers, 
prominent in their profession, well versed in the fundamental principles of a 
republican form of government and admirably equipped for the work of framing 
a constitution adapted to promote the welfare of an agricultural state. 

The delegates chosen at the election in May assembled at the hall of the 
House of Representatives in the capitol of the territory and were called to order 
by Luther B. Richardson, then secretary of the territory, who acted as chairman 
until the election of a temporary chairman. The choice of the convention for 
this honor was Frederick B. Fancher, of Jamestown. John A. Rea, of Bismarck, 
was selected as temporary secretary, and Robert M. Tuttle, of A-Iandan, as tem- 
porary stenographer. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 393 

No roll or roster of the delegates-elect had been prepared by the secretary 
of the territory and the temporary chairman appointed a committee of three to 
whom was referred the credentials of delegates present. William H. Rowe, of 
Dickey County, was chairman of this committee. A committee of ten was 
appointed on procedure and permanent organization, R. N. Stevens, of Ransom 
County, being made chairman thereof. The committee on credentials prepared 
a roll of the delegates elected and reported it to the convention on July 5th. 
There were no contests and no objections filed from any district. The report 
was adopted. 

Patrick McHugh, a delegate from Cavalier County, suggested that it was 
necessary that an oath of office should be taken by the delegates. The necessity 
and propriety of this course was briefly discussed. The delegates were not civil 
officers of the territory, nor of the United States, and no oath was prescribed in 
the emergency act. It was usual and customary, however, in state conventions 
called to prepare a new constitution for the state to "swear in" the members 
thereof. It was concluded to be a very proper proceeding, and an oath to sup- 
port the laws of the United States in preparing a constitution for the proposed 
State of North Dakota was administered to the delegates by the Hon. Roderick 
Rose, judge of the Sixth Judicial District and an associate justice of the Supreme 
Court of the Territory of Dakota. 

The delegates caucused in the forenoon of July 5th, according to their party 
affiliations, and agreed upon the permanent officers. Frederick B. Fancher was 
the choice of the republicans for president, defeating Martin N. Johnson in the 
caucus. Judge John E. Carland, of Bismarck, was the choice of the democrats. 
The session of July 5th was presided over by Martin N. Johnson. It partially 
completed the permanent organization by the election of Mr. Fancher over 
Mr. Carland by a vote of 54 to 16, three republicans and one democrat being 
absent and not voting. On motion of Mr. Carland, the election of Mr. Fancher 
was made unanimous. 

It was held by the convention that the committee on rules and methods of 
procedure appointed in the temporary organization was illegal, for the reason 
that a temporary organization could not confer authority to formulate rules, 
that such authority must be granted by the permanent organization, and on 
motion the president appointed a committee of seven on rules and methods of 
procedure, and Erastus A. Williams, of Bismarck, was named as chairman. 
Carland, Stevens and Johnson, all versed in legislative and legal procedure, 
were members. 

On July 8th, the convention completed its permanent organization by the elec- 
tion of John G. Hamilton as chief clerk; Fred Falley, sergeant-at-arms ; C. C. 
Bowsfield, enrolling and engrossing clerk ; Eben W. Knight, messenger ; George 
Wentz of Burleigh, door-keeper ; Joel S. Weiser, watchman ; R. M. Tuttle, 
stenographer; George Kline, chaplain; Arthur Lind, Harry G. Ward, Charles 
Lauder and Charles W. Conroy, pages. President Fancher administered the oath 
of office to these officers and they immediately entered upon the discharge of their 
duties. Upon the perfection of the permanent organization of the convention a 
resolution was adopted — 

"That we, the delegates of the Constitutional Convenion, for and on behalf 



394 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

of the people of the proposed State of North Dakota, hereby declare that we 
adopt the Constitution of the United States." 

By resolution the president was authorized to appoint seven members to act 
as members of the joint commission to be appointed by the Constitutional Con- 
ventions of North and South Dakota, for the purpose of making an equitable divi- 
sion of all property belonging to the Territory of Dakota, and to choose and agree 
upon the amounts of the debts and liabilities which should be assumed and paid 
by each of the proposed states of North and South Dakota, and authorized the 
commission to employ such clerical assistance in the performance of their duties 
as they deemed necessary, and also granted leave to the commission to sit during 
the sessions of the Constitutional Convention. This joint commission was 
required by the Enabling Act. 

The Committee on Rules and Methods of Procedure reported on July Sth a 
code of forty-five rules for the government of the convention. The rules provided 
for the appointment by the president of twenty-three standing committees on 
printing, reporting and publishing, accounts and expenses, preamble and declara- 
tion of rights, legislative department, executive department, judicial department, 
elective franchise, education, public institutions and buildings, public debt and 
public works, militia, county and township organization, apportionment and repre- 
sentation, revenue and taxation, municipal corporations, corporations other than 
municipal, temperance, revision and adjustment, impeachment and removal from 
office, and a committee of the whole. The rules provided for open sessions daily, 
except Sundays, at 2 o'clock, until otherwise ordered by the convention, and no 
standing committee could sit during the sitting of the convention, without leave 
of the convention. The report was considered in the committee of the whole. 
Proposed amendments to add a committee on homesteads and exemptions, amend- 
ment and revision of the constitution, and on railroads, were defeated in the com- 
mittee of the whole. 

An amendment was proposed inserting in rule one the words "when prayer 
shall be offered by the chaplain," and the committee of the whole recommended 
the adoption of the report when so amended. The convention concurred in this 
amendment and adopted the report. 

The method of procedure prescribed by the rules was that every article pro- 
posed to be incorporated into the constitution was to be in writing and introduced 
by an accredited delegate in open convention. It was known as a file to distinguish 
it from a bill, the usual name employed in legislative assemblies. Each file to be 
read three separate times, the second and third times not to be on the same day. 
The files to be printed and referred by the president, at the second reading, to the 
appropriate committee. When reported by this committee they were to be con- 
sidered in the committee of the whole. If recommended for adoption by this 
committee, they were read the third time in the convention, and if approved by a 
majority, they were referred to the committee on adjustment and revision, which 
committee was empowered to classify and arrange the files under an appropriate 
subdivision, to reconcile conflicting sections, to perfect the phraseology, and 
eliminate duplications and submit a constitution made up of the files approved by 
the convention for its final action. By this method every proposition was carefully 
investigated and the delegates were enabled to vote understandingly. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 395 

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 

The committee of the whole is a legislative fiction. It differs from a standing 
committee in that it is composed of the entire body. It has no permanent chair- 
man or clerk, though usually the chief clerk of the body keeps the record of its 
proceedings and any amendments to the subject matter under consideration are 
embodied in the report of the chairman and such report is printed in the journal 
of the convention, and thereby becomes a record of the convention. The chairman 
of the committee is selected from the membership of the body by the presiding 
officer, though the body itself may designate the permanent president to act as 
chairman. This rule obtains in the United States Senate, where the vice presi- 
dent or the president pro tem. presides at all sessions, whether the Senate is sitting 
as a Senate, or as a committee of the whole. This committee has no power to 
■enact laws. It can suggest amendments germane to the subject matter, or a sub- 
stitute provision, and recommend their adoption. It is within its province also 
to recommend the indefinite postponement, or the "laying on the table," of the 
matter referred to it. The recommendation for indefinite postponement, or to lie 
on the table, is generally employed when the committee is unfavorable to the laws 
proposed, as a "viva voce" vote adopts the reports and defeats the measure, while 
a recommendation that the bill or article do not pass "usually requires a record 
vote by yeas and nays." "The authorities" on parliamentary law almost unani- 
mously support the rule that reports of committees of the whole cannot be 
amended and that such reports must be adopted or rejected as an entirety, unless 
a vote is reserved on a separate amendment, but concede the right to substitute 
new matter for that contained in the report. In essence and effect a "substitute" 
is an amendment and was invented to overcome the strictness of the rule in rela- 
tion to amendments. 

The highest source of authority on parliamentary procedure in the United 
States is the Congress. The question on the adoption of amendments recom- 
mended by the committee of the whole is put in the form, "Shall the amendments 
proposed be agreed to or adopted 'en bloc,' or is any amendment reserved for a 
separate vote?" In the Senate the form is, "The Senate has, as in the committee 
as a whole, under consideration a bill (stating its title) and has made certain 
amendments thereto ; shall the amendm.ents be agreed to 'en masse,' or is a separate 
vote demanded on any amendment?" 

There was no division on party lines in the convention except at the election 
of its president by a straight party vote. The minority were given representation 
on all committees equal to their proportion of the whole number of delegates, and 
chairmanships of committees were distributed in the same proportion. 

DIVISION OF TERRITORIAL PROPERTY 

On July nth, the president announced the standing committees and named 
as the select commission to adjust the liabilities and provide for an equitable divi- 
sion of the property of the territory, Edgar W. Camp, of Jamestown, chairman ; 
William E. Purcell, of Wahpeton ; Burleigh F. Spalding, of Fargo ; Harvey 
Harris, of Bismarck; Alexander Griggs, of Grand Forks; John W. Scott, of 
Valley City, and Andrew Sandager, of Lisbon — four lawyers and three business 
men. 



306 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

For the information and guidance of this joint commission the convention 
by resolution requested the auditor for the territory forthwith to prepare and 
furnish a statement showing : 

1. The cost of construction and repairs of all public buildings and institutions 
of the territory. 

2. The indebtedness incurred and outstanding against the same. 

3. The part of such indebtedness which was by the law creating them to be 
assumed and paid by the states of North and South Dakota, respectively. 

4. All assets and liabilities of the territory, and to what accounts belonging. 

5. A list of all public records, archives and other property of that nature now- 
belonging to the territory. 

6. Any other information useful and necessary to aid this committee to effect 
an equitable division of the property, assets and liabilities of the territory. 

The chief clerk was ordered to have the omnibus bill, rules of the convention, 
the standing and select committees, printed in pamphlet form and placed upon 
the desks of the members. The convention by resolution empowered the joint 
commission to temporarily settle and fix what should be the seventh standard 
parallel, until such time as the true line should be ascertained. 

THE WORK OF THE CONVENTION 

On July I2th, and four days after perfecting the organization of the conven- 
tion, Martin N. Johnson introduced the first proposed article of the constitution. 
It related to "common carriers" and is known on the records as file number one. 
It was read twice at length and referred to its appropriate committee, viz., "cor- 
porations other than municipal." As every delegate had the right to introduce 
proposed articles, a total of 140 files were offered by 48 delegates during the 
life of the convention, of which 118 files can be classed as original matter, pre- 
pared by the delegates from the constitutions of other states.. Twenty-four were 
substitutes for original files and reported from the standin* committees. Two were 
complete constitutions, and one was for the equitable distribution of the assets and 
property of the territory and the assumption of an equitable proportion of the 
debts and liabilities of the same. The subject matter of eleven of these files 
related to the regulation of the liquor traffic. Seven were for prohibition, two 
for license, one for regulation of the traffic by city and county local option, and 
one to purchase established breweries and distilleries and thus reimbtirse the 
owners for property rendered useless. Six files proposing a form of preamble, 
and two proposed schemes for the location of a permanent seat of government, 
but generally but one file was offered on any given subject and was usually pre- 
sented by a delegate who was a member of the committee who had jurisdiction 
of the subject matter stated in the file. 

On July 1 6th, the convention adopted a resolution offered by Mr. Spalding 
that no proposed articles be received by this convention, except by unanimous con- 
sent, after the close of the session of Monday, July 22d, but this limitation should 
not apply to reports of committees, either of material submitted to, or originating 
with them. 

It also adopted a resolution asking the opinion of the judiciary committee as 
to the power of the convention to provide for the taxation of the road bed and 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 397 

rolling stock of the Northern Pacific Railroad, which was by its charter exempt 
from taxation in the territory, and indefinitely postponed a resolution offered by 
Mr. Lauder that a select committee of five be appointed by the president to whom 
should be referred all questions relating to the "seat of government." 

The work of framing a constitution was done mainly in the committees, who 
devoted the forenoons and' evenings to the consideration of the different articles 
referred to them. By resolution the various committees were empowered to 
employ such clerical assistance as they deemed necessary and directed the first 
legislative assembly to make an appropriation to pay such clerks such an amount 
as should be certified to by the chief clerk and president of the convention. Secre- 
tary Richardson, who was custodian of the appropriation made by Congress to 
pay the expenses of the Constitutional Convention, holding that no part of such 
appropriation could be used to pay clerks of committees. 

The committee of county and township organization presented the first report 
of the standing committees on July i6th, and the judiciary committee submitted a 
report recommending that the article or proposition which required judges of the 
District Court to take and submit an affidavit that no cause remains in his court 
undecided that has been submitted for decision for the period of ninety days 
before being allowed to draw or receive any salary, be left to the Legislature to 
adopt such regulations as the necessities of the case may require. This report was 
adopted. It recommended a substitute for the "compact with the United States," 
outlined in file three, and that the matter of the non-sectarian character of the 
public schools be left to the committee on education. That the proposition of file 
eighteen, "No act shall embrace more than one subject, which shall be expressed 
in its title," should constitute a section under the head of the legislative depart- 
ment of the constitution, and that file eight, providing that the governor, attorney- 
general and judges of the Supreme Court shall constitute a "Board of Pardons," 
be referred to the committee on the executive department. 

On July 1 8th, Mr. Camp offered a resolution providing that when the com- 
mittee of the whole shall have recommended that any proposition, or article, be 
made a part of the constitution, such proposition or article shall be referred to 
the committee on revision and adjustment, whose duty it shall be to arrange such 
proposition in order, and revise the same so that no part of the constitution shall 
conflict, and to report a constitution embracing all articles and propositions so 
referred for final adoption as a whole by the constitution. This resolution led to 
an instructive and protracted debate, participated in by a number of the delegates, 
in which the powers and duties of the committee were clearly defined, and the 
convention with a clear understanding of the limited power of the committee 
adopted the resolution without amendment. 

The resolution was reconsidered on the following day and amended so as to 
provide that the committee report a constitution for "adoption or amendment, 
section by section, by the convention and then adopted as a whole." The com- 
mittee was instructed by a vote of sixty-three yeas and eight nays to report "every 
change made in the matter referred to it." 

On July 20th, ]\Ir. Williams introduced a complete constitution, known as 
file io6, which was read the first time and printed in the Journal. 



398 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

THE WILLIAMS CONSTITUTION 



i 



This document excited much speculation and comment, not so much as to the 
matter contained therein, but as to its authorship. It was excellently arranged 
under the heads. The State, The People, The Government, Alteration of the Con- 
stitution, and The Schedule, and its provisions were expressed in clear, pertinent 
and apt language. It was, as one newspaper expressed it, "A marvel of strength, 
sense and diction." Many of its provisions were incorporated in the constitution 
framed by the convention. It was suspected of railroad origin, or prepared at the 
cost and suggestion of the cattle barons of the Missouri slope. Williams dis- 
claimed its authorship, and did not reveal the source from which it came, nor its 
author beyond the statement that he received it from a Bismarck attorney, and 
that it had been prepared by an eastern attorney. Various stories of its authorship 
appeared in the press, among them, one that it was prepared by Senator William 
M. Evarts of New York, an eminent jurist, with the assistance of some of the 
best constitutional lawyers of the country. The Bismarck Tribune said it had 
received enough light on the subject to suspect that this story was not far from 
right. Senator Evarts himself, however, said that the Constitution of North 
Dakota, so far as he had looked into it, was a most excellent one and reflected 
credit on the deliberate sense of North Dakota, but that he had not prepared it, 
was not consulted about it, and knew nothing about it. 

Another story ascribed its authorship to Prof. James Bradley Thayer of the 
Harvard Law School. A careful investigation has verified this story. Professor 
Thayer was the real author of this constitution. He was assisted in its prepara- 
tion by Henry W. Harden, and the late Washington F. Pedrick, who was secretary 
of the Geneva Commission. That Professor Thayer was the author of the Wil- 
liams Constitution appears from the following statement of Henry W. Harden: 

"In 1889, the Territory of Dakota was about to be admitted to the Union as 
two states. Mr. Henry Villard was at that time chairman of the finance committee 
of the Northern Pacific Railway, the most important corporation operating in 
that territory. He was sincerely desirous that the two new states should start 
right, that they should have the best constitution which could be framed for them, 
and with that purpose in mind he consulted Mr. Charles C. Beaman, then one 
of the leaders of the New York bar. Mr. Beaman advised him that if he could 
get Professor Thayer to draft a constitution for the new states, they would have 
the benefit of all that expert knowledge and soun.i judgment could accomplish in 
that respect. Professor Thayer undertook the task. His draft-constitution was 
submitted to the two conventions, and was in large part adopted by them. The 
legislative article in the Constitution of North Dakota, for example, is substan- 
tially word for word the language of Professor Thayer's draft. 

"It rarely happens to a teacher or to a lawyer to accomplish a piece of con- 
structive work of this kind, a piece of work affecting so widely the interests of 
so large a community, affecting them not merely for the present but for the future. 
"You may think it singular that the authorship of a work of this importance 
should wait until this time for public disclosure. The fact is, that it seemed pru- 
dent when the work was doing to conceal its authorship. Though Mr. \Mllard 
was moved only by a single-hearted desire to promote the welfare of the two new 
states, it was feared that a draft-constitution prepared by an eastern college pro- 





LINDA W. SLAUGHTER 
First postmaster, Bismarck, 1873 



ALANSON W. EDWARDS 
Fargo pioneer 




CLEMENT A. LOUNSBERRY, BISMARCK ERASTUS A. WILLIAMS 

Photo at twenty-one years of age, when Bismarck pioneer, lawyer and legislator 

captain in Twentieth Michigan Volunteers 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 399 

fessor, under the direction of a Wall Street lawyer and at the instance of the head 
of the largest corporation in the territory, might fail of adoption if its authorship 
were known ; that the people whom it w^as designed to benefit might entertain a 
suspicion that a constitution so prepared, however fair upoh its face, concealed 
some sinister attack upon their property rights. The two constitutions have now 
been in force some fifteen years. Their merits have been proved in that time. 
But two amendments have been made to the North Dakota Constitution, and one 
of these incorporates a clause from Professor Thayer's draft omitted by the Con- 
stitutional Convention. The principal actors in this scheme to help the people of 
the Dakotas are now all dead, and I am the only survivor of the two young men 
who were engaged in the preliminary work under Professor Thayer's direction. 
The occasion for concealment of the origin of these constitutions has now passed, 
and the facts I have narrated shotild not be lost for lack of a record." — From a 
speech of Henry W. Hardon, Esq. 

From E. R. Thayer, dean of Law School, Harvard University: 

'T enclose a copy of what Mr. Hardon said in 1904, when my father's portrait 
was presented to the Law School. His remarks may be found in Ihe printed 
volume containing the proceedings. 

'T think, however, that Mr. Hardon's memory is defective in some points. I 
do not believe that Mr. \'illard consulted my father on Mr. Beaman's advice; Mr. 
Villard and my father had long been personal friends and I think that Mr. Villard 
came to him of his ovvn motion, because of this friendship and my father's long 
study of constitutional law in the Harvard Law School. Mr. Beaman was, I 
believe, Mr. Villard's regular counsel, and Mr. Villard sought the advice of both 
my father and him. But while Mr. Beaman and my father were friends, and no 
doubt consulted together in this matter, I think their operations were in a sense 
independent. 

"I doubt, also, whether my father's work is represented in the North Dakota 
Constitution to the extent which Mr. Harden thinks ; certainly that constitution 
difi'ers much (although not so much as the constitution of some other states) from 
my father's ideal of a constitution. He believed earnestly that it should consist 
of a brief enunciation of a few fundamental principles, leaving the Legislature 
a free hand, subject to these principles, to exercise governmental powers in the 
broadest way, and he was utterly opposed to the belittling restrictions on legis- 
lative power to be found in state constitutions. This is a criticism to which I 
feel sure he would have thought the North Dakota Constitution also subject." 

Professor Ezra Ripley Thayer, who strikingly resembled his father in mind, 
feature and manner, had been dean of the Harvard Law School since 1910, and in 
that year, also, became Dane professor, and was known as an authority in medical 
jurisprudence. He died a suicide by drowning in the Charles River, near his home, 
on the night of the 14th of September, 1915, at the age of forty. 

Mr. Parsons, of Morton, introduced the Constitution of South Dakota. 
It was not printed, however, as a file or in the journal, as copies of it were upon 
the desks of members. By direction of the convention no proposition or pro- 
posed article could be introduced after Monday, July 22d, and on that day the 
convention by vote required all standing committees to make reports by Thurs- 
day, July 25th. 

File No. 25 vesting the legislative authority in a single body to be called the 



400 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Legislative Assembly, was taken up for discussion in the committee of the whole. 
The subject was exhaustively covered in brilliant, spirited and illuminating 
speeches, showing care and research in their preparation. 

Delegates Stevens, Turner, Parsons, of Morton, Johnson and Lauder advo- 
cated and Garland and Harris opposed it. Persons interested in this subject, 
either as an academic question, or as a feature of the government, will find this 
debate a mine of historical lore. The convention, however, adhered to the prece- 
dents and adopted the two-house system of older states. Articles recommended 
by standing committee to form a part of the constitution were usually agreed to 
without debate, but the article relating to the 

SALE AND DISPOSITION OF SCHOOL LANDS 

was an exception. There was a wide diversity of sentiment among the dele- 
gates as to what probably would be most advantageous to the state, whether the 
land should be leased, or sold on long time, the title remaining in the state until 
the purchase price was fully paid; whether the right to purchase should be 
restricted to actual settlers, the purchase limited to 320 acres,- to prevent specu- 
lators acquiring large tracts ; whether persons who had settled upon school lands 
after they were surveyed and had cultivated and otherwise improved them 
should have a preference right to purchase such improved lands, or should be 
regarded as trespassers upon the public domain, and whether the lands sold 
could be lawfully taxed until patented by the state. The sentiment crystallized 
in favor of an open, unrestricted sale on time contracts, the lands to be subject 
to taxation from the date of such contract. 

THE SUFFRAGE 

The committee on elective franchise of July 25th made a majority and 
minority report. It diflfered on the question whether the power to grant suffrage 
to women should be left to the Legislature, or submitted to a vote of the qualified 
electors of the state by the first Legislative Assembly. After a spirited and 
lengthy discussion, the convention adopted a provision which empowered the 
Legislature at its discretion to make further extensions of suffrage, without 
regard to sex, but prohibited any restrictions of the suffrage without a vote of 
the people, and a provision making women qualified voters at any election held 
solely for school purposes, and eligible to hold school offices, was incorporated 
in the articles on the elective franchise. However, the convention the next day 
reconsidered its action and substituted a provision which is now a part of the 
constitution, whereby the Legislature is empowered to make further extensions 
or restrictions of suffrage, when authorized thereto by a vote of the people. 
« 

THE JUDICIARY 

The committee on the judiciary department also submitted majority and 
minority reports. The majority report recommended the establishment of a 
.Supreme Court, to consist of three members, and prescribed that no one unless 
learned in the law, of thirty years of age, and a resident of the territory for five 
years next preceding his election, should, be eligible to the office. Guy C. H. 
Corliss, of Grand Forks, who aspired to the Supreme Court, was ineligible, by 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 401 

reason of his residence qualification. He came to Bismarck, together with John 
M. Cochrane, a notable lawyer of Grand Forks, and they jointly persuaded the 
delegates to limit the residence qualification to three years. Mr. Corliss was 
elected to the Supreme bench. He drew the short term and became the first 
chief justice of the state. 

The majority of the committee recommended and reported to the convention 
the establishment of a Probate Court in each organized county, clothed with 
jurisdiction of the estate of decedents, wills, estates of widows and orphans, and 
of guardianship. 

The minority proposed a system of county courts, clothed with jurisdiction 
of all probate matters, and jurisdiction of civil matters involving sums not 
exceeding $1,500 and jurisdiction of criminal matters below the grade of felony, 
and in all cases of lunacy. ^Ir. Rolfe, a delegate from Benson County, vigor- 
ously advocated the stibstitution of the County Court system, saying in part: 

"That the system of Probate Courts as we now have it * * * is a dis- 
grace not only to our judicial system, but to the people who seem to hug it to 
their bosom. * * * It is mysterious to me upon what ground they can 
defend the continuation of this system." 

Mr. Bartlett, of Griggs, defended the County Court system, saying in part: 

"The County Court system has been tried before. It is in use in Illinois, 
Colorado, New York, Nebraska, Missouri and several other states. They say 
that it is the most popular court with the attorneys and the people. * * * 
The minority does not propose the establishment of a new court, but an improve- 
ment in a court already established." 

Mr. Garland, chairman of the judicial department, on August 2d, introduced 
a substitute for the probate system, which provided for county courts whose 
jurisdiction could be increased whenever counties having a population of two 
thousand or more should by a majority vote of its people decide to increase 
their jurisdiction. This was amended by adding a proviso, "Such jurisdiction as 
thus increased shall remain until otherwise provided by law," and the substitute 
as so amended was adopted by the convention. 

Mr. Williams, on July 31st. had introduced four additions to be added to 
the judicial article ; they were taken from the complete constitution introduced 
by him. The first section provided "When a judgment or decree is reversed or 
affirmed by the Supreme Court, any point fairly arising upon the records of the 
case shall be considered and decided and the reasons therefor shall be concisely 
stated in writing. * * * ^{-[(j presented with the record of the case." 

The second section empowered the Supreme Court to make rules for its 
government and that of the other courts of the state, establish rules of practice 
and rules for admission to the bar of the state. 

The third section made it a duty of the court to prepare a syllabus of the points 
adjudicated in the case and concurred in by a majority of the judges. 

The fourth section required the judges of the Superme Court to give their 
opinion upon important questions of law and upon solemn occasions, when 
requested so to do by either branch of the Legislature. 

The first and third sections were accepted by the convention. The second 
section was stricken out. The fourth section led to much discussion. Judge 
Garland in an elaborate speech presented the reasons why it should not be 



402 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

accepted as a section of the constitution. He believed it to be pernicious and 
unwise to have it in the constitution. He fortified his views by reviewing the 
experience of Colorado, whose constitution contained a similar provision, and 
by quoting liberally from the opinions of its Supreme Court judges in the case 
of Wheeler vs. Irrigation Company, 9 Colorado, 249. Judge Carland stated that 
a constitutional provision of this kind was open to grave abuses and asked that 
it be stricken from the slate. 

Delegate Miller also opposed the proposition, saying the fundamental prin- 
ciple of our constitutional government is that it should be divided into three 
departments, legislative, executive and judicial. The proposition interfered with 
this division of the government. It would be burdensome to the Supreme Court, 
and result in no good to the people. It would make the Supreme Court the legal 
advisers of the Legislature, and the court would legislate by virtue of being 
called upon to advise the Legfislature, hence political judicial legislation would " 
follow. 

Delegate Moer also protested, saying that the adoption of this provision would 
be simply an addition of three more lawyers to the Legislature. The opinion of 
the supposed questions would be ex parte, without a hearing and entitled to no 
more weight than that of the lawyers who might be present as members of the 
Legislature. 

Delegate Johnson opposed, saying the only advantage that the Supreme 
Court has over a justice of the peace is that it has the last say of the case. They 
are no more than men who are not clothed with official position, or the attorney- 
general whose province it is to furnish legal advice to the executive and legisla- 
tive departments of the government. 

Mr. Williams favored the proposition, claiming that it should be adopted 
because it would place every member of the Legislature on an equality and would 
avoid forcing on the statute books an important law, one that might afifect the 
interests of the entire people, and have it afterwards declared unconstitutional. 

This provision had before this discussion been approved in the committee of 
the whole and adopted by the convention. The convention reconsidered its 
action and struck out the obnoxious section. 

This committee had also unanimously agreed upon three terms of the 
Supreme Court to be held annually, at the "Seat of Government." Purcell 
objected to holding the terms at the "Seat of Government" and submitted a 
proposition for a "migratory court" of three terms, one term to be holden at 
Fargo, one at Grand Forks, and one at Bismarck, then the "Seat of Government." 
This proposition was debated at length, Delegates Purcell, Miller, Parsons, of 
Morton, Lauder and Spalding favoring it, and Delegates Scott, O'Brien and 
Selby opposing it. The Purcell proposition was adopted by the convention. 

Brig.-Gen. Thomas H. Ruger of the Military Department of Dakota trans- 
mitted in accordance with instructions received from the War Department at 
Washington a proposed article ceding to the United States jurisdiction over the 
military reservation established in the state by the Federal Government. It was 
referred to the judiciary committee, which reported a section in conformity with 
the desire of the Government and ceding jurisdiction over military, Indian and 
other United States reservations and public buildings used for United States 
purposes. This section was adopted by the convention. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 403 

APPORTIONMENT 

Apportionment and legislative representation, owing to diversity of senti- 
ment among the delegates, was a difficult problem to solve. The more sparsely 
settled counties favored giving each county a senator, regardless of population, 
and strenuously opposed the principle of dividing the county into senatorial 
districts based on population, and also seriously objected to the election of rep-' 
resentatives from the senatorial districts as favored by a majority of the legisla- 
tive committee. It was stoutly maintained that every county should have at least 
one representative and that when two or more counties were grouped as a 
senatorial district the more populous county had power and doubtless would 
exercise it, to deprive the smaller county or counties of representation, either in 
the Senate or House. 

Martin N. Johnson, in an impassioned speech, opposed representation by 
counties, rather than men, that laws were made for people and not for valleys, 
areas or inanimate objects. That there was no fairness or justice in the system 
that would give the forty- four men who voted in Billings the same senatorial 
representation as the 1.035 ^^'ho voted in his own County of Nelson. The basis 
of representation should be men, not area. After full discussion and argument, 
the system of apportioning the county into senatorial districts according to popu- 
lation and the election of representatives from senatorial districts was adopted. 

CORPORATIONS 

The committee on corporations other than municipal presented a majority 
and minority report. The main differences related to the provisions in reference 
to railroads, whether they should be declared public highways, were subject to 
legislative regulation and control as to rates charged for the transportation of 
passengers or freight, and whether an appeal should be allowed to the courts 
from any law enacted by the Legislature prescribing rates, or from any decision 
of the Board of Railroad Commissioners fixing rates. The debate over these 
questions was an animated one, and participated in by Johnson, chairman of the 
committee. Miller and Bartlett of Dickey County, Lauder, Stevens, Parsons, of 
Morton. Moer, Camp, Flemington, Appleton, and Bell, seven lawyers and four 
laymen. The majority report was amended to include "sleeping car, telegraph 
and telephone companies as common carriers of passengers, intelligence and 
freight," and with this amendment was adopted by the convention. An amend- 
ment or substitute which differed materially only in a provision declaring that 
all such "common carriers should be entitled to charge and receive just and 
reasonable compensation for the transportation of freight and passengers within 
the state, and that the determination of what is a just and reasonable compen- 
sation should be a judicial question to be determined by the courts," was defeated 
in the committee of the whole, and a provision adopted empowering the Legisla- 
ture to establish rates by act, or delegating power to a board which rates could 
not be charged by a common carrier, unless they were found by the courts to 
be unreasonable and confiscatory. An amendment which would compel the 
railroads to submit differences between railroads and their employes to arbitra- 
tion met the same fate; while an amendment proposed by M. N. Johnson, who 



404 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

stated that he had been overlooked in the distribution of "passes" to the delegates, 
was referred to the committee on militia, the motion being made in a facetious 
way by Purcell, with no expectation that it would prevail. The convention, how- 
ever, saw only the humorous side and thought fights for passes could be best 
refereed by the militia. 

LOCATION OF THE CAPIT.\L AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS 

Schemes for locating the capital engrossed the attention of the convention 
from its beginning. Delegate Mathews of Grand Forks County early in the 
session introduced an article to locate the "Seat of Government" temporarily at 
Bismarck, the Legislature at its first session after the admission of the state 
to the Union to provide for the submission of the question of a place for the 
permanent "Seat of Government" to the qualified voters of the state at the next 
general election thereafter. The place receiving a majority of the votes cast 
upon said question to be the permanent "Seat of Government;" if no place 
received a majority of all the votes cast upon said question, the governor was to 
issue a proclamation calling an election to be held in the same manner at the 
next general election to chose between the two places having the highest number 
of votes at the first election. The place receiving the highest number of votes at 
this election to be the permanent "Seat of Government." Delegate Lauder, of 
Richland County, early in the session offered a resolution for the appointment 
of a select committee to which all propositions relating to, or in any manner 
affecting the question of the "Seat of Government" should be referred. It was 
defeated by a vote of the convention, and the Mathews article was referred to 
the standing committee of public institutions and buildings. Bailey Fuller, as 
mayor of Jamestown, invited the convention to hold its remaining sessions at 
that place, promising ample accommodations for the meetings of the convention 
proper, rooms for its committees and free entertainment of the delegates. The 
invitation was declined. 

Delegate Miller, of Cass County, introduced an article locating the capital 
at Bismarck, and the public institutions at various cities and allotting to each a 
proportion of the 500.000 acres of land granted by the omnibus bill for capitol and 
public building purposes. The location of the capital was the silent, powerful 
undercurrent of the convention: There were two strong combinations of dele- 
gates formed, one known as the Bismarck-Fargo union, the other as the Grand 
Forks, the first to locate the capital permanently at Bismarck. The F"argo- 
Bismarck combination considered Bismarck the most available point for the 
■'Seat of Government," and desired the agricultural college at Fargo. Behind, 
or supporting this combine, was the powerful influence of the Northern Pacific, 
and this together with the distribution of the institutions that would be estab- 
lished, promised the necessary votes to carry the Bismarck-Fargo scheme. 

The Grand Forks combine was behind the Mathews scheme, hoping and 
expecting that by the process of elimination of other cities with capital aspira- 
tions. Grand Forks would eventually be selected as the permanent capital. 

The committee on public institutions and buildings differed on the location 
of the capital and presented majority and minority reports thereon. On August 
7th, the convention proceeded to the consideration of the reports as a convention 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 405 

without filtering them through the committee of the whole, and then ensued the 
most thrilling, sensational debate of the session, reinforced as it was by meetings, 
protests and remonstrances of mass meeting of citizens and conventions in 
various counties, and petitions of individuals. These petitions and protests were 
generally expressed in forceful language, devoid of threats or insinuations of 
corruption, or that other than proper motives actuated the members who favored 
the Bismarck-Fargo scheme. The City of Grand Forks was in a "state of 
mind" over the capital location. In the estimation of some of its citizens, the 
locating of the permanent capital was "a mendaci6us exhibition of public villainy 
and corruption." One protest from there was as gross and as indecent an attack 
as has ever been visited upon any body or any representative character or dig- 
nity whatsoever, while a petition signed by S. S. Titus, then cashier and now 
president of the First National Bank of that city, and 112 others, was respectful 
in tone and was expressed in forceful and appropriate language of dissent and 
protest. 

David Bartlett, of Griggs County, proposed as the first section of the majority 
report "the following article shall be submitted to the vote of the people as a 
separate article, as provided by the scheme," and asked for its adoption, saying 
that the people have the right to locate these institutions, and it was wrong to 
deprive them of that right. That a refusal of this section would compel at least 
thirty members to refuse to sign the constitution, and to advise their constituents 
to reject it. That he was satisfied that the vote to pass the article as reported 
by the majority of the committee was obtained not only by the distribution of 
the institutions, but by every means known to the power of corporations, by 
promising and farming out so far as that influence could go, every office and 
position of the state ticket the coming fall. The Grand Forks Herald upon the 
authority of Delegate Bennett published a statement charging President Fancher 
with suppressing the reading of telegrams of remonstrance. The statement was 
false and untrue. It was investigated by the convention and shown by several 
members that the attempt on the part of the chief clerk to read the telegrams 
had been frustrated by motions to adjourn. The convention by a yea and nay 
vote exonerated the president. Seventy-one votes aye, no nays, Bennett himself 
voting aye. 

Delegate Pollock spoke briefly, contending that it was the right of the people 
through chosen representatives to determine the question, that the delegates 
were not the representatives of the people to decide it. It might endanger the 
adoption of the constitution. 

Johnson asked, is it possible that gentlemen in the majority will sit here in 
silence and give no reason for their course of conduct? Is it so indefensible 
that no one will attempt to justify it? Why compel some thirty delegates to 
refuse signing the constitution and compel them upon their return to their homes 
to advocate the rejection of the constitution? 

Purcell made the elaborate argument against the article. It attempted to 
locate institutions for which there was no existing need, and in all probability 
would be no need for fifty years. We have all the institutions that we need for 
the present, and for some future time to come. The matter should be left in 
the hands of the Legislature. It is something unheard of in the history of our 



406 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

country, and while Wahpeton is represented in this article, he said that in oppos- 
ing it he was doing just what his constituents required of him. 

Bell, of Walsh County, in a vehement speech bristling with sarcastic allu- 
sions to the convention's love for and devotion to the interests of the dear people, 
characterized the article as infamous and so weighted down the constitution 
that it would never be ratified by the people. 

Bennett, of Grand Forks, openly charged that the capital was located at 
Bismarck in the interests of the two great railroads of the state. 

Stevens, of Ransom County, advocated the adoption of the majority report 
and defended the location of the capital and institutions. It would prevent job- 
bery and corruption in the Legislature. Upon the conclusion of the debate, 
Bartlett's amendment was defeated by a vote of 31 yeas to 43 nays, and the 
Miller motion to adopt the report of the majority prevailed, by a vote of 44 
yeas to 30 nays. 

Delegate Johnson added to the interest of the occasion by proposing an 
amendment striking out "Bismarck in the County of Burleigh" and inserting in 
lieu thereof, Jamestown in the County of Stutsman," saying to the Jamestown 
delegation that the minority had the power and were willing to give Jamestown 
the capital for all time to come. Five votes was enough to do it. Blewett, of 
Jamestown, questioned the good faith of the minority, and the amendment was 
lost by a vote of 19 yeas to 55 nays. The previous question was ordered and 
the main question to adopt article 19 prevailed by a vote of 44 yeas and 30 
nays, all the delegates-elect, except Parsons, of Rolette, who is recorded as 
absent and not voting. During the calling of the roll of delegates and when 
their names were read. Camp, Parsons, of Morton, Rolfe, Turner, Williams and 
President Fancher explained their votes. A motion to reconsider the vote and 
that the motion to reconsider be laid on the table prevailed. The convention 
believed the agony was ended, but it was doomed to disappointment, for on 
consideration of the report of the revision and adjustment committee, Bartlett, 
of Griggs, renewed the motion to substitute the provision for article 19 as 
adopted. This motion was laid on the table. He then moved that the article 
be submitted as a separate article to be voted on separately. 

Delegate Miller moved to lay the motion on the table. 

Delegate Williams demanded the previous question on this mtoion, which 
was seconded, and the convention proceeded to vote on the main question, which 
was the adoption of the article. The vote was taken by yeas and nays, and 
adopted by a vote of 43 yeas to 28 nays. The old combine, standing in solid 
phalanx, voted yea. 

Delegates Peterson and Selby were absent and not voting, and Delegates 
Almen and Scott were paired. 

Delegates Bean, Camp, Johnson, Lauder, O'Brien. Pollock, Stevens, Turner 
and Wallace explained their votes. Stevens in explaining his vote said : "I voted 
aye on this proposition so that the City of Bismarck may sit on her seven hills 
and be the most beautiful capital of the four new states." 

In his explanation of his vote Delegate Bean said that he came to the con- 
vention opposed to the location of the capital and institutions by the convention. 
First two votes on that question showed that fact. His third vote was in the 
affirmative, that he might move a reconsideration. An indignation meeting of 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 407 

his constituents was instigated he said by one of the members of this convention 
and condemned the action of the majority. He had seen more political trickery, 
jobbery and attempted combinations of the minority than he ever saw in any 
political convention he ever attended. The serious question is not where we 
shall locate these institutions, the underlying question is, shall the City of Bis- 
marck, or Grand Forks, have the capitol ? This last statement aroused the ire of 
Delegate Bennett of Grand Forks, who, although debate was out of order, in- 
dignantly characterized it as false, that Grand Forks had never proposed to 
enter a combination to locate the capital, but when it saw this combination of 
forty-four bound to locate the capital at Bismarck, it felt justified in trying to break 
it if possible. That was the course of the people from Grand Forks. An 
obstreperous partisan of the committee called out from the gallery "rats," and 
thus gave Purcell an opportunity to rebuke the partisan uttering the opprobrious 
epithet, and to say that the caucus of the' minority was not called or organized 
by the minority, but at the call of outsiders who pretended to be able to bring to 
the assistance of the minority some of those who have voted with the majority. 
In all of their meetings there had been no attempt at chicanery, or underhand 
action, to defeat the will of the minority. Camp explaining his vote in part said: 
"I was called home a week ago to attend an indignation meeting, at which the 
delegates from Stutsman County were to be burned in effigy, or otherwise hon- 
ored ; however, we were not burned in effigy, or otherwise dishonored." 

The people of Jamestown thought there was still a possibility that that city 
could be named for the temporary "seat of government," at least, and they were 
encouraged in this belief by a member of the Grand Forks delegation, who was 
present at this indignation meeting, and who stated to the meeting that he could 
secure from the majority who were supporting Bismarck enough votes, which, 
with the Stutsman County delegation, would be able to locate the capital at 
Jamestown. With this end in view, the Stutsman County delegation entered the 
caucus, which has been referred to by the delegates. There were a number of 
sessions of this caucus, but when it became a certainty that the larger number 
of the minority would not agree to any proposition to locate the capital, either 
temporarily or permanently at any place without a vote of the people, the Stuts- 
man County delegation withdrew and believing that the interests of Stutsman 
County and the entire state will be best subserved by locating the capital and 
public institutions as provided in article nineteen, the Stutsman County delegation 
decided to vote therefor. 

CONVENTION IN .SESSION FORTY-FIVE D.WS EXPENDITURES 

The appropriation of $20,000 by Congress was msufficient to cover the neces- 
sary expenditures for printing and clerk's help for the convention and its com- 
mittees. The convention had authorized in its last days the publishing and dis- 
tribution of 1,000 bound volumes of the "debates" and the publishing of the con- 
stitution in the daily and weekly newspapers of the state, and the payment of the 
sum of $10 to each paper so publishing and circulating the document and pro- 
vided in the schedule that the first State Legislature should appropriate a sufficient 
sum to pay the same. The convention was in session for forty-five days, and the 
appropriation of $20,000 by Congress to pay the per diem of members, officers 



408 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

of the convention, clerks of its committees, printing of its files and journals, was 
only sufficient to cover the expenses of the convention for thirty-one days. The 
convention authorized the issue of certificates of indebtedness signed by the presi- 
dent and chief clerk, to members and officers for fourteen days' services, and to 
clerks of the standing committees, including the clerks, stenographers and expert 
accountants of the joint commission, for any services rendered. All such cer- 
tificates to be redeemed by the state. By chapter 14 of the Session Laws of 1890 
the state auditor was authorized to issue "funding warrants" bearing 5 per cent 
interest and payable at the option of the state treasurer to provide funds for the 
payment of the expenses incurred by the Constitutional Convention in excess of 
the sum appropriated by Congress. 

Funding warrants in the sum of $11,637.20 were issued on March 3, 1890, and 
sold by the state treasurer at a premium of $9.50, netting the state $11,646.70. 
During the period between February 24 to August 15, 1890, bills in the sum of 
$10,898.46, incurred on account of the Constitutional Convention were paid by 
the state treasurer. The Congress made a supplemental appropriation to cover 
the deficiency account of the Constitutional Convention and on March 26, 1891, 
the state treasurer received from the Federal Government $10,854.71, which sum 
was $43.75 less than the deficiency account of the Constitutional Convention. 
There is nothing in the state records which explains this discrepancy. It is prob- 
able that it was caused by the disallowance by the accoimting officer of the Fed- 
eral Government of some item or items which, although certified by the state as 
an expense incurred by the state, were considered by these accounting officers as 
not properly chargeable to the Constitutional Convention. It may, however, have 
been caused by an oversight of the state in the omission of some item or items of 
the expenses properly incurred by the Constitutional Convention, and paid l)y 
the state in the certified account of the Constitutional Convention expense sent 
to the Federal secretary of treasury. The state funding warrants were 
redeemed and paid by the state treasurer on the same day the remittance was 
received from the Federal Government. The state paid as interest due thereon 
the sum of $644.31, a total cost to the state for the Constitutional Convention of 
$688.06. 

THE JOINT COMMISSION OF NORTH .\ND SOUTH D.\KOTA 

The Enabling Act prescribed that the Constitutional Conventions of both 
North and South Dakota should select a joint commission to be composed of not 
less than three members of each convention, "whose duty it shall be to assemble 
at Bismarck, the present seat of government of said territory, and agree upon an 
equitable division of all property belonging to the Territory of Dakota, disposition 
of all public records, and also adjust and agree upon the amount of the debts and 
liabilities of the territor}' which shall be assumed and paid by each of the proposed 
states of North Dakota and South Dakota, and the agreement reached respecting 
the territorial debts and liabilities shall be incorporated in the respective constitu- 
tions, and each of said states shall obligate itself to pay its proportion of such 
territorial debts and liabilities, the same as if they had been created by such states 
respectively." 

The convention empowered its president to appoint a commission of seven 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 409 

member? to act with a similar commission from South Dakota, to prepare and 
submit an agreement to comply with this provision of the Enabling Act. The 
president appointed as such commission four lawyers and three business men, 
viz.: Edgar \Y. Camp, of Jamestown, chairman; William E. Purcell, of Wahpe- 
ton; Burleigh F. Spalding, of Fargo; Harvey Harris, of Bismarck; Alexander 
Griggs, of Grand Forks; John W. Scott, of Valley City, and Andrew Sandager, 
of Lisbon. The commission was granted leave to sit during the sessions of the 
Constitutional Convention, and also to employ such clerks, expert accountants and 
stenographers as it deemed necessary. 

South Dakota appointed a commission of seven members. Judge A. G. Kellam 
was its chaimian. The other members were Vallentine T. McGillicuddy, Henry 
Neill, E. W. Caldwell, William Elliott, Chas. H. Price and S. F. Brott. These 
commissions met on the afternoon of July i6th, in the office of the governor of 
the territory, and organized a joint commission by the selection of A. G. Kellam 
of South Dakota as temporary president, and Andrew Sandager and Vallentine 
T. McGillicuddy, secretaries. W. G. Hayden of North Dakota and L. M. 
McLaren of South Dakota were selected as assistant secretaries. 

To equalize honors, the commissions provided that the chairmanship of the 
joint commission should be held by the chairman of the North Dakota Commis- 
sion, Camp, and the chairman of the South Dakota Commission, Kellam, alter- 
nating day by day, and adopted as a rule of procedure in the disposition of all 
matters before the joint commission, that the roll of the commissioners be called 
and if a majority of the members composing the North Dakota Commission, and 
a majority composing the South Dakota Commission, should record themselves in 
the affirmative, the proposition thus voted upon should be declared carried, other- 
wise not. The commission held daily sessions from July 7th to 31st, inclusive, 
five days it had two sessions daily, and on July 31st, three sessions were necessary 
to complete its work. 

Divers views as to the power -of the commission under the provisions of the 
Enabling Act were held by the members of the North and South Dakota Commis- 
sions as to the proper construction of sections three and six thereof. 

Further, it was the duty of the commission to determine not only the propor- 
tion of the territorial debt to be assumed by the respecive states upon admission, 
but also its duty to provide for the division of the public records, or whether the 
Enabling Act required such division to be made by the respective states when 
admitted to the Union. 

The Enabling Act had prescribed as to the territorial bonds issued to erect 
buildings for institutions, that such bonds should be assumed and paid by the 
state where the institutions were located, and the Territorial Legislature had pro- 
vided in the laws establishing these institutions and authorizing the issuance of 
bonds therefor, that in the event of the division of the territory happening, the 
payment of the interest and principal of such bond should be assumed by the 
territory or state, as the case might be, where the institutions were located. South 
Dakota had ten institutions within its confines. North Dakota had four. All 
appropriations for betterments and purposes other than maintenance had been 
made by the territory from its general fund, viz.: $91,170.13 for institutions 
located in South Dakota. $69,084.78 for institutions located in North Dakota, and 
an excess of appropriations to South Dakota of $22,085.35. 



410 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

The joint commission finally determined after full discussion that it was 
within its powers to provide for the disposition of all the public records, as well 
as the assets and miscellaneous properties belonging to the territory. It appointed 
a committee of two, one from each commission, to examine and report what books 
and records it would be necessary to transcribe, and the probable expense of such 
transcription; to determine as to who shall have the copies of the public records, 
and who the originals; also a committee of two to examine and report upon 
the condition of the public library and public documents contained therein, and 
report an estimate of its value; the committee to ascertain and report the 
amount of military property belonging to the territory and its whereabouts; a 
committee to ascertain and report on the condition and value of any miscellaneous 
property; a committee to collect and classify information relative to the claims 
against the territory and of accounts due the territory, and a committee to ascer- 
tain the amount appropriated by the Federal Government to the Brookings Agri- 
cultural College and Experiment Station, and what portion thereof has been used 
for permanent improvements. 

On July 24th, these committees reported either verbally or in writing. 

The committee on the library recommended that sealed bids be submitted by 
North Dakota and South Dakota. South Dakota bid $4,000 ; North Dakota, $750. 
It developed in the debate on the library that a majority of reports and text books 
belonging to the library were in the offices of lawyers living in Yankton and other 
places in South Dakota, and South Dakota evidently expected to recover most of 
them, otherwise it could not have valued the fragments of the library at Bismarck 
at $4,000. It really was of less value than the sum named by North Dakota. 

The committee on books, records and archives recommended that they be 
divided into two groups. The choice of groups to be determined by lot. North 
Dakota won the first choice, and selected the group made up of the books and 
records of the governor's and secretary's offices. The group made up of the 
books and records of all other territorial officers went to South Dakota. The 
expense of copies of any of these records, it was agreed, should be borne equally 
by both states. 

Upon the submission of the reports of these several committees it was agreed 
that the commission of North Dakota, and the commission of South Dakota, each 
should submit a proposition in writing for a settlement of all matters except the 
public records, and such propositions were submitted on July 25th. 

The two propositions, so far as public institutions were concerned, were sub- 
stantially similar. As to assets and liabilities, the South Dakota plan was to divide 
them between the two states according to the counties concerned. Claims of the 
territory against counties on account of delinquent taxes should go to, and belong 
to the state within which such counties might be situated and credits for taxes over- 
paid should likewise belong to such state, balance of cash on hand upon the ter- 
mination of the territorial government should be assumed and paid by North and 
South Dakota share and share alike. 

The North Dakota proposition was that all personal property and miscel- 
laneous effects now in South Dakota, excepting military outfits and accoutrements, 
should be the property of South Dakota, all of the same in North Dakota, except- 
ing military outfits and accoutrements and excepting the furniture and fixtures 
of the capitol at Bismarck, should be the property of North Dakota, South Dakota 



EARLY mSTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 411 

to pay to North Dakota in full settlement of all outstanding accounts, and of all 
claims against the territory arising out of the unlawful taxation of the Northern 
Pacific Railway lands, which claims should be assumed by the State of North 
Dakota, the sum of $60,000. Should South Dakota desire the State of North 
Dakota to assume the ownership and control of the capitol at Bismarck, with its 
furniture and fixtures, including all claims arising out of the expense of the grant 
of lands made to the territory for capitol purposes, and further to assume its 
bonded indebtedness. North Dakota will do so upon payment to North Dakota of 
the sum of $40,000, all other indebtedness and unliquidated debts to be borne 
equally and all claims in favor of the territory shall accrue to the respe'ctive states 
in like proportion. North Dakota shall be entitled to all delinquent taxes due the 
territory from counties located in North Dakota, and the same as to South 
Dakota. From and after March nth. South Dakota shall be credited with all 
taxes collected from counties within its boundaries, and charged with all moneys 
paid out by the territory for appropriations made to public institutions situated 
therein, and one-half of all other expenditures, and the same as to North Dakota. 
The North Dakota proposition was discussed and explained at length, and that 
fixing March 11, 1889, from which each state should be credited with taxes col- 
lected and charged with money paid out. Upon the conclusion of the debate the 
joint commission appointed Chairman Camp of North Dakota and Chainnan 
Kellam of South Dakota as a committee to confer as to the differences between 
the two commissions, and to reach an agreement thereon, if possible, and report 
the same to the joint commission for consideration. This committee reported an 
agreement of twenty-four sections, covering bonds, indebtedness, liabilities and 
disposition of all property, and a separate agreement in relation to the books, 
records and archives. Both were considered article by article, and the joint com- 
mission unanimously agreed to the same, and it was signed by all members and the 
joint commission thereupon appointed Mr. Purcell of North Dakota and Mr. 
Caldwell of South Dakota to draft the article to be submitted to the respective 
conventions for insertion in the constitutions of the states. This committee 
reported the article to be submitted to the conventions on the 31st day of July. It 
was unanimously approved. The convention, having completed its labor, adjourned 
subject to the call of the chairman. No call was ever made, as the agreement 
made and the article to be embodied in the two constitutions was satisfactory to 
both states, and was adopted and incorporated in the constitutions and schedules 
of the respective states. 

When the agreement and proposed article was reported to the North Dakota 
Convention by Chairman Camp, it was considered by the committee of the whole 
on August 8th, which committee recommended the adoption of the article recom- 
mended by the joint commission, and also that the state should appropriate $25,000 
to reimburse counties containing lands which formed a part of the grant to the 
Northern Pacific for taxes illegally assessed upon the same, and refund to pur- 
chasers of such lands at tax sale and also recommending "That the shorthand 
notes of the proceedings of the joint commission be transcribed and 'printed with 
the debates of the convention, inasmuch as, so far as the commission is informed, 
said joint commission is the first body of the kind ever convened." 



412 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH .DAKOTA 

THE CONSTITUTION. HOW IT WAS MADE 

The convention in framing the constitution had the benefit of suggestions and 
the advice of a number of distinguished men wlio, upon its invitation, addressed it. 
Among these were Arthur C. Mellette, then governor of the territory, who called 
attention to the two policies which had heretofore prevailed in framing constitu- 
tions. The early policy that a constitution should embody fundamental principles 
only, the later policy that it should embody all legislation that was rightful and 
which could safely be placed there, and avoid the evils of excessive legislation, 
and the confusion necessarily arising from new laws enacted every two years by 
the Legislature. 

Judge Cooley of Michigan, an eminent jurist, and a recognized author of con- 
stitutional law, advised the delegates to remember that times change, that many 
new questions were vital today which were unknown to the constitution makers 
of a hundred years ago. Therefore the Legislature should not be prevented from 
meeting those evils, which are sure to come. In your constitution you are tying 
the hands of the people, therefore, do not legislate too much. The convention 
heeded this advice and our constitution is comparatively free from legislation, 
much more so, for illustration, than the constitutions of South Dakota or Okla- 
homa. 

Rev. R. C. Wiley, of the National Reform Association, who "urged legislation 
for Sabbath observance, for regulation, management and advice, for instruction 
in the principle? of virtue, for teaching Christianity and morality in the schools, 
and the recognition of God and Christianity in the constitution." 
God is recognized in the preamble to our Constitution. 

Henry B. Blackwell, of Boston, advocated suffrage for women, or at least 
the placing of a clause in the constitution empowering the Legislature to extend 
the suffrage to women in the future. The constitution empowers the Legislature 
to extend the suffrage to women, or restrict the same, upon a vote of the people. 

C. J. Buell, of Minneapolis, advocated the "Single Tax," but the delegates 
would have none of it. 

Senators Stewart and Reagan, two members of the United States Senate com- 
mittee on irrigation, and Major Powell, director of the Geological Survey, 
addressed the convention on .August 5th. 

Senators Stewart and Director Powell spoke on irrigation interests briefly and 
its possibilities in the Northwest and advised "Hold the waters in the hands of the 
people." Replying to this the delegates inserted in the constitution "All flowing 
streams and water courses shall forever remain the property of the state." 

Senator Stewart did not restrict himself to discussing the benefits of irriga- 
tion, but expressing himself as opposed to irrigation debts and mortgages, because 
they took the independence and manhood out of the people. He elaborately dis- 
cussed the demonetization of silver by the United States in 1873, by England, 
Austria, and Holland in 1871, and the demonetization of gold by France in 1869, 
and by Germ^iny, Austria and other (minor) European states in other years. He 
was in favor of the use of both gold and silver as money and plenty of it, and 
believed that the Congress was, and trusted that the people of North Dakota 
would send no representative to Congress that would represent New York City, 
London or Berlin. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 413 

Senator Reagan paid scant attention to the subject of irrigation, but discoursed 
at length on silver. He stated that the convention in its constitution has to shape 
the policy of the state, and its action, and the action of the people which imme- 
diately follows it will determine in a great measure its capacity for forming a 
government which will protect the people. "Do not send men to Congress to rep- 
resent the bond holders and the money men to further oppose the people, and go 
further to change the character of this government, or rob the people of their 
sovereignty and make them slaves of the money power. Send the right men and 
we will make the coinage of silver free and unlimited like gold." This advice and 
admonition failed to impress the delegates or the people and North Dakota has, 
with the exception of Senator Roach, always sent representatives and senators to 
Congress who were opposed to the unlimited coinage of silver and in favor of the 
gold standard. 

Upon the conclusion of these addresses, M. N. Johnson rose to reply, and 
referred to Senator Reagon as a man deep rooted in the principles of democracy 
and selected by Jefiferson Davis, president of the southern confederacy as a mem- 
ber of his cabinet, he having served as postmaster-general therein, and wondered 
if Senator Reagan was studying irrigation in the days when those delegates wear- 
ing "Grand Army badges" were irrigating the trenches before Vicksburg, the 
battlefield of Gettysburg, and the soil of Andersonville with the blood of them- 
selves and their comrades : he was interrupted by Delegate Purcell, with the ques- 
tion, "Does the gentleman mean to cast any reflection on the senator from Texas 
by his remarks?" Mr. Johnson answered, "No, sir." 

Delegate Mathews of Grand Forks, who served as a soldier in the War of the 
Rebellion, and then wore the "Grand .A^rmy badge," moved to adjourn. The 
motion was out of order under the working rules of the convention, but was 
entertained and being promptly put by the president, was adopted without dissent, 
and thus the most regrettable incident in the constitutional history was closed. 

In the preparation of the constitution, the delegates had access to "charters 
and constitutions of all the states" published by Congress. Copies of the con- 
stitution of South Dakota, the Enabling Act, and a territorial bill providing for the 
Australian system of voting were on the desks of delegates as well as abstracts 
of "Hough's American Constitution," covering twenty topics which Delegate 
Williams had prepared and placed on the members' desks. The delegates dili- 
gently searched these constitutions and with the experience of a century to draw 
from the constitution makers culled that which was best and shunned errors from 
which older states had suffered. There are few original provisions in the consti- 
tution adopted. It is a compilation of the best provisions of existing constitutions 
modified to conform to the conditions in the state. From the Omnibus Bill was 
mainly culled the compact between the state and the United States. From Illinois 
the provision for county courts. From Minnesota, the provision relating to the 
sale of public school lands, and the investment of moneys derived from the sale. 
From Pennsylvania the provision relating to Board of Pardons. From New 
Hampshire, provisions as to amendments to the constitution. From the Williams 
constitution came the preamble, and many of the legislative provisions. From 
California some material for the taxing of railroads; the inscription of the great 
seal, "Liberty and union now and forever, one and inseparable." from a speech 
of Daniel Webster in the Senate of the United States. From the United States 



414 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Constitution some provisions which are embodied in the declaration of rights; 
ceding jurisdiction over mihtary posts came from the secretary of war, through 
General Ruger. 

REVISION AND ADJUSTMENT 

The Committee on Revision and Adjustment were authorized on August 8th 
to have their report printed and submitted their final report on August 13th. It 
was a complete constitution and arranged under appropriate heads and sections 
consecutively numbered. The amendments recommended were indicated at the 
section to be amended. Each delegate was furnished a printed copy of this final 
report. It was considered section by section and when any article was adopted 
it was immediately referred for engrossing by the enrolling and engrossing clerks. 
On this review, the delegates found that their own work in the committee of the 
whole was not always satisfactory. "The convention in undoing what it had done 
the day before, performed the most commendable day's work of the session. The 
compelling of the Supreme Court to give opinions when called upon, and the 
Legislature to extend, but not to restrict the right of suffrage, was a pair of very 
ridiculous propositions," said the Bismarck Tribune at the time. The schedule 
contained the agreement of the joint commission on the division of the public 
records of the territory, provision for an election to adopt or reject the constitu- 
tion and for the taking effect of the constitution. The Committee of the Enroll- 
ment and Engrossment were authorized to correct the copy of the constitution 
furnished them. They made few changes in phraseology and punctuation, and 
at the night session of Saturday, August 17th, reported a correctly enrolled and 
engrossed constitution. The chief clerk was empowered to renumber the sections, 
which was adopted as a whole by a viva voce vote. The yeas and nays were 
demanded by a sufficient number, the roll was called and the constitution was 
adopted by a vote of 40 ayes and 23 nays, 12 delegates being absent and not vot- 
ing. The constitution was signed by the president and chief clerk in open con- 
vention, and by a number of the delegates, who by motion duly adopted, were 
invited so to do and the constitution so signed was deposited by the chief clerk in 
the office of the secretary of the territory. On the day preceding adjournment the 
convention by resolution provided for the publishing of 1,000 volumes of the 
debates and also thanked the president and the permanent ofificers of the conven- 
tion for the fair and efficient manner in which they had discharged their duties, 
and presented to President Fancher the chair he had occupied, and the gavel he 
had wielded. On the last day, the delegates presented Fancher with a framed 
group picture of the delegates, and Chief Clerk Hamilton was the recipient of a 
similar picture, as an appreciation of their services. On the night of Saturday, 
August 17th, on motion of Rolfe, of Benson County, the convention adjourned 
sine die, and passed into history. 

SUBSEQUENT PROCEEDINGS 

Arthur C. Mellette, as governor of the Territory of Dakota and by virtue of 
the authority vested in him by section twelve of the schedule of the constitution, 
on August 29, i88g, by proclamation caused an election to be held on the first 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 415 

Tuesday in October, to elect congressional, state, legislative, judicial and county 
officers as provided in the constitution and to adopt or reject the constitution, and 
to adopt or reject the prohibition article to be voted on as a separate article. The 
constitution was ratified at this election by a majority of 19,334, there being 
27,441 votes for ratification and 8,107 against. Every county in the state gave a 
majority for ratification, except the counties of Grand Forks, Nelson and Walsh, 
which gave an aggregate majority of 3,418 against ratification. This was more 
than offset by Burleigh and Cass counties, which gave an aggregate vote of 5,079 
for ratification, only two votes against ratification were cast in Burleigh and 
thirty-one votes in Cass County. 

The prohibition article on a separate vote was ratified by a majority of 1,159. 
The delegates "slipped a cog" when they provided in the schedule that congres- 
sional, state, legislative, judicial and county officers should be chosen at the same 
time the vote was taken on the ratification or rejection of the constitution. This 
fact coupled with the fact that the republican and democratic parties held conven- 
tions and nominated full state tickets and did not as parties oppose ratification, 
made it morally certain that the constitution would be raified. In anticipation of 
ratification, Chief Clerk Hamilton had prepared an engrossed copy of the constitu- 
tion and this properly certified together with a certified abstract of the votes cast 
by each county as canvassed by the governor, secretary of the territory and chief 
justice, were forwarded on the adoption of the constitution to President Harrison, 
who on the 2d day of November, 1889, by proclamation declared "the fact that 
the conditions imposed by Congress on the State of North Dakota, to entitle that 
state to admission to the Union have been ratified and accepted and that the admis- 
sion of the state into the Union is now complete" and thus North Dakota was 
released from the shackles of territorial servitude, and endowed with the rights, 
duties and privileges of a sovereign state of the Union. 

AMENDMENTS TO CONSTITUTION 

Twenty amendments have been made to the constitution since its adoption. 
The first forbids the authorization of lotteries or gift enterprises for any pur- 
poses, and requires the Legislature to enact laws prohibiting the sale of lottery or 
gift enterprise tickets. The second relates to the elective franchise, and restricts 
suffrage to full citizens of the United States civilized persons of .Indian descent 
who shall have severed their tribal relations two years next preceding each elec- 
tion, disqualifies persons under guardianship, non compos mentis or insane, those 
convicted of treason or felony, unless restored to civil rights, and requires the 
Legislature to establish an educational test as a qualification and empowers the 
Legislature to prescribe penalties for neglecting or refusing to vote at any general 
election. 

The third to the Board of Pardons. The fourth to the assessment of property 
and how the property of railroad and public service corporations shall be assessed 
for purposes of taxation. 

The fifth the school for the deaf and dumb at the City of Devils Lake, 
changing the name from asylum to school. 

The sixth establishes an institution for the feeble minded at Grafton the Legis- 



416 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

lature to appropriate 20,000 acres of the grant of land made by Congress, to its 
benefits for its endowment. 

The seventh, the Legislature may provide that grain grown in the state and held 
therein in elevators, warehouses and granaries may be taxed at a fixed rate. 

The eighth, the investment of the moneys of the permanent school fund in first 
mortgages on farm lands within the state. 

The ninth fixes the minimum prices of state lands and the conditions of sale, 
one-fifth of price in cash, one-fifth in five years, one-fifth in ten years, one-fifth in 
fifteen years, and one-fifth in twenty years, interest not less than 6 per cent pay- 
able annually in advance. 

The tenth increases the Supreme Court from three to five members. 

The eleventh reduces the rate of interest to be paid by purchasers of school 
lands from 6 per cent to 5 per cent. 

The twelfth establishes a state normal school at Minot. 

The thirteenth reduces the rate of interest to be paid by purchasers of state 
lands from 6 per cent to 5 per cent and permits the acquirement of such lands 
through the exercise of the right of eminent domain, by railroads, for townsite and 
other enumerated public purposes. 

The fourteenth authorizes and empowers the Legislature by law to erect, pur- 
chase, or lease and operate one or more terminal elevators in the states of Minne- 
sota and Wisconsin, or both. 

The fifteenth providing for the initiative and referendum as to legislation. 

The sixteenth providing for the initiative as to the constitution. 

The seventeenth, to change the name of the state blind asylum. 

The eighteenth, state aid to the building of public highways. 

The nineteenth, terminal grain elevators within the state. 

The twentieth, to permit the classification of property for the purpose of 
taxation. 

PERSONNEL OF THE MEMBERS 

Of the members of the Constitutional Convention several were advanced to 
high public positions, as follows : 

United States Senators. — Martin N. Johnson, William E. Purcell. 

Members of Congress. — Burleigh F. Spalding and Martin N. Johnson. 

United States District Judge. — John E. Carland. 

Governor. — Roger Allin, Fred B. Fancher. 

Lieutenant-Governor. — David Bartlett, Elmer D. Wallace. 

United States Surveyor-General. — Erastus A. Williams. 

United States Assistant Attorney-General. — Reuben N. Stevens. 

United States Attorney. — John F. Selby, Edgar W. Camp. 

Assistant United States Attorney. — James F. O'Brien and William H. Rowe. 

Judge Supreme Court. — Burleigh F. Spalding. 

State Auditor. — Herbert L. Howes. 

Insurance Commissioner. — Fred B. Fancher. 

State Treasurer. — Knud J. Nowland. 

District Judge. — William J. Lander and Samuel H. Moer, tlie latter at 
Duluth. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 417 

Superintendent of Public Instruction. — Wm. J. Clapp. 

Railroad Commissioner. — Andrew J. Slotten. 

Compilation Commission. — Robt. M. Pollock. 

State Senators. — Andrew J. Slotten, John McBride, Charles V. Brown, Arne 
P. Haugen, George H. Fay, James H. Bell, Patrick McHugh, Virgil B. Noble, 
Andrew Sandager, John F. Selby, A. F. Appleton, William E. Purcell. 

Representatives. — Erastus A. Williams and R. M. Pollock. 

Speaker of the House. — Reuben N. Stevens, Edward H. Lohnes, Robert B. 
Richardson, A. W. Hoyt, James A. Donnelly, Henry W. Peterson, Charles V. 
Brown, Albert F. Appleton. 

THE president's PROCLAMATION 
TWO NEW STATES 



The President's Proclamation Admitting the Twin Dakotas Into the Union 

The following dispatch was sent from the Executive Mansion at 4 o'clock Saturday 
afternoon by Secretary Blaine : 
To Governors Mellette and Miller, of North and South Dakota, Bismarck, North Dakota: 

The last act in the admission of the two Dakotas as States in the Union was completed 
this afternoon at the Executive Mansion at 3 o'clock and 40 minutes, by the President sign- 
ing at that moment the proclamation required by the law for the admission of the two States. 
The article on prohibition, submitted separately in each State, was adopted in both. The 
article providing for minority representation in South Dakota was rejected by the people. 
This is the first instance in the history of the National Government of twin States, North 
and South Dakota, entering the Union at the same moment. 

James G. Blaine. 

The following is the text of the proclamation admitting North Dakota : 

By the President of the United States of America: 

A proclamation 

Whereas, the Congress of the United States did, by an act approved on the 22A day of 
February, 1889, provide that the inhabitants of the Territory of Dakota might, upon the 
conditions prescribed in said act, become the states of North Dakota and South Dakota ; 

And whereas, it was provided by said act that the area comprising the Territory of 
Dakota, should, for the purposes of the act, be divided on the line of the seventh standard 
parallel, produced due West to the western boundary of said Territory, and that the dele- 
gates elected as therein provided to the constitutional convention in districts north of said 
parallel should assemble in convention at the time prescribed in the act at the city of 
Bismarck ; 

And whereas, it was provided by the said act that the delegates elected as aforesaid 
should, after they had met and organized, declare on behalf of the people of North Dakota 
that they adopt the Constitution of the United States, whereupon the said convention should 
be authorized to form a constitution and State government for the proposed State of North 
Dakota ; 

And whereas, it was provided by said act that the constitution so adopted should be 
republican in form and make no distinction in civil or political rights on account of race or 
color, except as to Indians not taxed, and not be repugnant to the Constitution of the 
United States and the Declaration of Independence, and that the convention should, by an 
ordinance irrevocable, without the consent of the United States and the people of said States, 
make certain provisions prescribed in said act ; 

And whereas, it was provided by said act that the Constitutions of North Dakota and 
South Dakota should respectively incorporate an agreement, to be reached in accordance 
\fith the provisions of the act, for an equitable division of all property belonging to the 

Vol. 1—27 



418 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Territory of Dakota, the disposition of all public records, and also for the apportionment of 
the debts and liabilities of said Territory, and that each of said States should obligate itself 
to pay its proportion of such debts and liabilities the same as if they had been created by 
such States respectively ; 

And whereas, it was provided by said act that the constitution thus formed for the people 
of North Dakota should, by an ordinance of the convention forming the same, be submitted 
to the people of North Dakota at an election to be held therein on the first Tuesday in 
October, 1889, for ratification or rejection by the qualified voters of said proposed State, and 
that the returns of said election .should be made to the Secretary of the Territory of Dakota, 
who with the Governor and Chief Justice thereof, or any two of them, should canvass the 
same; and if a majority of the legal votes cast should be for the constitution, the Governor 
should certify the result to the President of the United States, together with a statement of 
the votes cast thereon and upon separate articles or propositions and a copy of said consti- 
tution, articles, propositions and ordinances ; 

And whereas it has been certified to me by the Governor of the Territory of Dakota that 
within the time prescribed by said act of Congress a constitution for the proposed State of 
North Dakota has been adopted and the same ratified by a majority of the qualified voters of 
said proposed State in accordance with the conditions prescribed in said act; 

And whereas, it is also certified to me by the said governor that at the same time that 
the body of said constitution was submitted to a vote of the people a separate article, num- 
bered 20 and entitled "Prohibition," was also submitted, and received a majority of all the 
votes cast for and against said article, as well as a majority of all the votes cast for and 
against the constitution, and was adopted ; 

And whereas, a duly authenticated copy of said constitution, article, ordinances, and 
propositions, as required by said act, has been received by me ; 

Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States of America, do, 
in accordance with the provisions of the act of Congress aforesaid, declare and proclaim the 
fact that the conditions imposed by Congress on the State of North Dakota to entitle that 
State to admission to the Union have been ratified and accepted, and that the admission of the 
said State into the Union is now complete. 

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United 
States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington this 2d day of November, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine, and of the independence of the United States of 
America the one hundred and fourteenth. 

[seal.] Bexjamin Harrison. 

By the President. 

James G. Blaine, 
Secretary of State. 

The proclamation admitting South Dakota is of the same general purport. 

MARCH OF CIV1LIZ.\TI0N 

The picture at the close of this chapter represents an incident of the opening 
of the Constitutional Convention of North Dakota, at Bismarck, July 4th, 1889. 

A similar incident occurred at the laying of the cornerstone of the territorial 
capitol, September 8th, 1883. 

This story is best told in the language of Major McLaughlin, Indian in.spector, 
in the following letter: 

Department of the Interior. Washington, July 12, 1917. 
Col. C. a. Lounsberrv. 

Washington, D. C. 
My dear Colonel : 

Referring to our recent conversation regarding two important public ceremonies held at 
Bismarck, N. D., in which a large number of the Indians of the Standing Rock Reservation 
participated, I submit the following, which I recall quite distinctly; 




JAMES McLaughlin 

Inspector, U. S. Indian Ollice 




YELLOWSTONE KELLY 

(Luther Sage Kelly. 1873) 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 419 



At the laying of the cornerstone for the capitol at Bismarck in the early part of Septem- 
ber, 1883 (I am under the impression it was September 8th, but it may have been a day or 
two later), to which ceremony I was invited by the Governor and the Mayor of the Citj' 
of Bismarck to bring a delegation of the Standing Rock Indians, I had about three hundred 
of the principal Indians of the reservation accompany me on that occasion. 

We reached Mandan about 2 P. M. where we left our teams and saddle horses, and 
waited until about six o'clock for a special train, which was sent over to take the Indians 
across the Missouri River to Bismarck. 

About the time of our arrival in Mandan, Ruf us Hatch's Pullman train from the Yellow- 
stone Park had reached Mandan, and remained at the depot during our stay there, which 
was about four hours. Upon Mr. Hatch's train there were a great many English noblemen, 
French counts and German barons, etc., and Sitting Bull did a flourishing business, during 
the time the train remained there, writing autographs for those people at $1.50- each. 

Upon our arrival in Bismarck, the committee which had been assigned to look after the 
Indians, met us at the depot, and directed us to the place which had been selected for the 
camp, and had secured a room in the Sheridan House for Sitting Bull and his family. There 
were five sections of the Northern Pacific Pullman cars which arrived at Bismarck that 
evening, the sections coming into the depot one half an hour apart, upon which train was 
Henry Villard, then president of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, accompanied by his 
wife. Gen. U. S. Grant and his wife. Secretary Teller, e.x-Secretary Schurz, Mayor Carter 
Harrison, of Chicago, and Mayor O'Brian. of St. Paul; together with many other prominent 
men from Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and European countries, who were on a tour to 
be present at the driving of the Golden Spike not far from Missoula, Mont., being about 
midway on the said railroad, between Lake Superior and the Pacific Ocean, the driving of 
which spike, announced the completion of the line from Lake Superior to the coast. 

You doubtless remember, that a number of those visitors made talks from the tower 
which had been erected on the capital site for that purpose ; among whom were President 
Villard, President Grant, Carter Harrison and Sitting Bull. 

You also doubtless remember, that a band stand w-as erected on the main street in 
Bismarck, directly north of the Northern Pacific depot, which was subsequently used for 
some years as an exhibit of products of North Dakota. I took Sitting Bull and his wife, 
together with his nephew. One Bull, into same, where General Grant and his wife, together 
with President Villard and his wife, came to meet and shake hands with Sitting Bull and 
his family. I acted as interpreter for the Indians on that occasion. During that day. Sitting 
Bull's time was occupied almost constantly in writing his name and selling the autographs 
for $1.50 each, which autographs, together with those he had sold on the previous day to the 
Rufus Hatch party, approximated $150.00, which he had realized from his signature. He 
would not sign his name for any person on that occasion without receiving $1.50 for each 
autograph. I, however, succeeded in having him write his name on a piece of paper for 
General Grant, President Villard, Secretary Teller, and ex-Secretary Schurz. The trip from 
Mandan to Bismarck, on this occasion, was the first time Sitting Bull had ever been on a 
railroad train, and, in fact, very few of the Indians of the party had ever seen a railroad 
train before, and the large gathering of strangers in Bismarck on that occasion, together 
with the cordial reception and hospitality of the people of Bismarck to the Indians, made a 
favorable impression upon them and, I am quite convinced, aided greatly in their subsequent 
amiability and efforts to meet the wishes of the Government. 



The picture I received in your letter of the loth instant, was taken by D. F. Barry, 
photographer at Bismarck, on July 4, l88g. When I again, at the request of officials of 
North Dakota, and of the City of Bismarck in particular, took a party of Indians — men, 
women and children, about five hundred in number — to be present upon the occasion of the 
convening of the constitutional convention for the State of North Dakota, the members of 
the said constitutional convention being escorted by these 500 Indians of the Standing Rock 
Reservation, two troops of cavalry and two companies of infantry from Fort Yates, and two 



420 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

companies of infantry with a section of battery from Fort Lincoln, together with certain 
militia companies from different parts of the state. 

I had prepared the Indian part of this procession with a view to its historical aspect, 
by having the Indian section in five platoons ; the first platoon being composed of but three 
Indians, namely: Bearded Chin, as chief of the lower Yanktonai Sioux of the Cannonball 
District, who was dressed up to represent "Brother Jonathan," Black Bull, a prominent 
Indian soldier of Chief Two Bears band of Yanktonai, carrying the United States flag, and 
an Indian named Red Horse, carrying a banner on which were the words, "March of Civili- 
zation." These three men were about ten yards in advance of the next platoon, whose 
banner was, "Dakota as a Territory," which platoon was comprised of the Indians, both men 
and women, in full Indian costume, behind which they had ponies and dogs hitched to 
travois, led by women and children as though marching on the plains. Following this platoon 
at about a distance of ten yards came the next platoon, which was composed of a section 
of thirty U. S. Indian police in new uniforms, and upon their banner, which was carried 
alongside of 'the U. S. flag, were the words, "Law and Order." About ten yards behind this 
third section, came the judges of the Indian police court, namely: John Grass, Chief Gall 
and Chief Mad Bear. Upon their banner was the scale and weights and the word "Justice." 
About ten yards behind this section came about two hundred Indians, chiefly young and 
middle-aged men and women, all of the men being dressed in new hats and linen dusters, 
and the women dressed entirely in white, women's style, and as the day was exceedingly 
warm many of them carried umbrellas. Their banner, which they carried alongside of the 
U. S. flag in the front column, held the words, "State of North Dakota, 1889." 

Sitting Bull appeared in the column of the Indians representing "Dakota as a Territory." 
He was on foot and marched in the front rank of the column near the middle. 

Every want of the Indians was fully supplied by the committee who had charge of 
looking after the welfare of the Indians, and that day is frequently spoken of yet among 
the Indians of the Standing Rock Reservation. 

It was unfortunate that some accident occurred to Photographer Barry which prevented 
him from taking the picture that he desired, and the picture you have, shows the Indians as 
they were coming from the south side of the railroad track, where they were encamped, to 
the main road, to take their places in the procession, and does not do the occasion full 
justice, but as you saw the parade yourself, you can supply much that is lacking in the picture. 
Sincerely yours, J.^mf.s McLaughlin. 

PERSONAL CH.\R.\CTF.RISTICS 





Sitting Bull was the son of Four Horns, a sub chief of the Unckapapa Teton 
division of the Sioux, born on Grand River, South Dakota, in 1834. As a boy 
he was known as Jumping Badger and counted his first coup on a fallen enemy 
when fourteen years of age, having accompanied his father on the warpath against 
the Crows, and then took the name of his father, changed to Sitting Bull in 1857. 
He gained prominence as a warrior by a raid on Fort Buford in 1866, and there- 
after made constant war on the frontier posts or on the Crows or Shoshones, 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 421 

horse-stealing being the principal object in his warfare. Refusing to go upon a 
reser\'ation, he gathered about himself the turbulent spirits of ever}- tribe, whom 
he was content to allow to do the fighting in the battle of Little Big Horn, while he 
"made medicine" in the hills. 

After the battle the Indians divided into two parts. Sitting Bull's command 
was attacked by General Miles, but Sitting Bull, with most of his faction, escaped 
to Canada, where he was taught by Major Walsh of the Mounted Police to write 
his name, and where he was finally induced to come into Fort Buford and sur- 
render in 1881, and was thereafter held at Fort Randall, until 1883, when he came 
under the jurisdiction of Major McLaughlin. 

Sitting Bull's price for signing his name was $1, but regarding the people on 
the Villard expedition able to pay the higher price, he charged them $1.50, and it 
was difficult to even get the three signatures mentioned by Major McLaughlin 
without the price. 

The author of this work accompanied Sitting Bull's party to Standing Rock on 
• the occasion of his surrender in 1881, and his autograph, which appears at the 
head of this sketch, was procured for his daughter from Sitting Bull on that 
occasion; the author, also, was at Bismarck on the two occasions mentioned by 
Major McLaughlin. To Alexander McKenzie credit is due for the inception of 
the plan for the two celebrations so admirably carried out by Major ^IcLaughlin. 



CHAPTER XXVI 
THE STATE 

"What constitutes a state? 
Not high raised battlements, or labored mound, 

Thick wall, or moated gate ; 
Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned — 

Not bays and broad-armed ports. 
Where, laughing at the storm, proud navies ride; 

Not starred and spangled courts — 
Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. 

No ! — men — high-minded men — 

Men who their duties know, 
But know their rights, and knowing dare maintain." 
— Sir William Jones, 1745-1794. 

North Dakota entered statehood with a bonded indebtedness of $539,807, 
some money in the treasury, $57,513, a capitol building costing some $200,000 
and 600 city lots to sell. 

South Dakota entered statehood with a bonded indebtedness of $750,000, 
a deficiency in her treasury of about $150,000, with no capitol building. 

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT 

The executive power of the state is devoted to and administered by commis- 
sions and boards. The constitution provides for two, the Board of Equalization 
and the Board of Pardons. The governor is a member of both. The most 
important commission and boards are the Taxation Cominission, Board of Con- 
trol, and Board of Regents. The members of the commissions and boards are 
appointed by the governor, by and with the consent of the Senate. Their tenure 
of office is usually for two, four or six years, and while as a rule they consult the 
governor and enforce his policies in administering the afifairs of their office, they 
frequently act on independent lines, to the serious political embarrassment and 
injury of the governor, as the people hold the governor responsible and not the 
commission and boards, for their mistakes of administration. 

ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN MILLER 

John Miller was the first governor of the state. As such governor, on Novem- 
ber 4, 1889, two days after the admission of the state to the Union, he issued his 
proclamation calling the Legislative Assembly to meet at Bismarck, on Tuesday, 
November 19, 1889, for the purpose of electing two United States senators, and 

422 



1 




Five petals of a pale, pink tint 
Are round its heart of gold, 

And hither, thither, without stint. 
It scatters o'er the world. 

A touch of color, faint and line 

The ai'tist at his best. 
Beneath a careless, swift design. 

Supreme and self-confessed. 

This flower that runs across the hill 

With such unconscious grace. 
That seeks some wilderness to lill 

And make a heavenly place; 
This masterpiece for conmion folk. 

Lit with the artist's joy. 
Let no unthinking, wanton stroke. 

No ruthless hand, destroy. 

— Marion Lisle. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 423 

for the performance of such other legislative duties as might be in accordance 
with the constitution. The Legislature assembled, which convened November 
19th, determined that the Federal law for the election of United States senators 
which prescribed that the Legislature should on the second Tuesday after its 
meeting and organization proceed to ballot for United States senators, each 
branch thereof to vote separately, was superseded by the Omnibus Bill, which 
conferred the power and made it the duty of the Legislative Assembly forthwith 
at its meeting and organization to ballot for United States senators. Accordingly, 
on November 20, 1889, the houses balloted separately, casting ballots for Gilbert 
A. Pierce, N. G. Ordway, Lyman R. Casey, republicans, and M. L. McCormick, 
democrat. The House was composed of sixty-two members, thirty-two being a 
majority. The Senate of thirty-one members, sixteen constituting a majority. 
Both houses met in joint session on Wednesday, the 21st day of November, as 
by law provided, and compared the journals of the respective houses, as to the 
number of votes cast for any person for United States senator, and it appearing 
from such comparison that Gilbert A. Pierce had received a majority vote in the 
Senate and House, he was by the joint assembly declared a duly elected United 
States senator. 

It further appearing from a comparison of the journals that no one person 
had received a majority in each House for the second senator to be elected, the 
joint assembly took one ballot for United States senator, the law providing in 
that event that such assembly should meet at 12 o'clock M. and take at least one 
ballot each day until some one person received a majority vote of the joint 
assembly, and was thereby chosen senator. The joint assembly was composed 
of ninety-three, all the membership of the Senate and House, and forty-seven 
was a majority. The joint assembly met on several different days and took in 
all ten joint ballots. On the niiUh joint ballot occurred an incident which is 
worthy of special mention, because conflicting versions of what actually took 
place on the ninth ballot were published by the press at the time. 

The chief clerk of the House had been appointed by Lieutenant-Governor 
Dickey, the presiding officer of the joint assembly, as clerk of the joint sessions, 
and also appointed two tally clerks, one from the Senate force of clerks, the 
other from the House. The roll of the Senate was first: called by the clerk, and 
then the roll of the House. The tally clerks recorded the votes as announced by 
the members. Upon the completion of the roll call it appeared that the tally 
clerks disagreed as to the number of votes cast for M. N. Johnson, N. G. Ord- 
way. and Lyman R. Casey. A verification of the vote was demanded. On the 
recall of the roll for verification purposes only, H. D. Court, an elderly mem- 
ber of the House, who had constantly voted for Ordway, attempted to change 
his vote from Ordway to M. N. Johnson. The right so to do was challenged by 
a number of the members. A motion to adjourn was interposed and before the 
announcement of the rolls of the ninth ballot the joint assembly dissolved. It 
was claimed that Johnson received a sufficient number of votes on this ninth 
ballot to elect him, if Court's vote on verification had been counted, but the records 
of the joint assembly which were approved by the assembly itself and published 
in the House Journal, do not support this claim. In fact, showed otherwise. It 
appears from them that he received 35 votes, while 47 were necessary to a choice. 
The names of these 35 appear in the journal and no other member of the joint 



424 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

assembly ever claimed that he had voted for Johnson on the ninth ballot. The 
highest vote Johnson received on any ballot was 42 on the second ballot, the 
lowest 28 on the sixth ballot. On the eighth ballot he received only 33. 

FIRST LEGISLATURE 120 DAYS 

The constitution provided that the first Legislative Assembly could sit for 
1 20 days, while the life of all other sessions was limited to sixty days. Gov- 
ernor Miller in his first message suggested in a general way the imperative need 
of laws to put in force the various articles and the schedules of the constitution, 
particularly the article on prohibition, which prescribed "That the Legislative 
Assembly shall by law prescribe regulations for the enforcement of this article 
and shall thereby provide suitable penalties for the violation thereof." Comply- 
ing with the suggestions of Governor Miller, the Legislature enacted laws for 

1. The organization and formation of state banks. 

2. For the board of university and school lands. 

3. Leasing and sale of school lands. 

4. A state board of agriculture. 

5. A uniform system of free public schools. 

6. A joint commission to effect a final adjustment between the states of North 
and South Dakota. 

7. A commission to supervise the surveying and marking the boundary line 
between North and South Dakota. 

8. The prohibition law. 

9. Assessment of railroad property. 

All of which laws were approved by the governor. 

On its own volition the Legislative Assembly enacted laws, 

1. To establish, locate and maintain an agricultural college at Fargo. 

2. An academy of science at Wahpeton. 

3. A soldiers' home at Lisbon. 

4. Deaf and dumb asylum at Devils Lake. 

5. A normal school at Valley City. 

6. A normal school at Mayville. 

7. Regulating practice of medicine. 

8. Abolishing the grand jury system and instituting informations by states 
attorneys instead of indictments. 

The governor approved all these laws, excepting as to the normal school at 
Mayville, which he vetoed. The Legislature, however, passed it over his veto. 

LOTTERY 

It attempted to pass a law whereby the Louisiana Lottery scheme which had 
been denied an extension of its charter by Louisiana could be established and 
perpetuated in North Dakota. Geo. H. Spencer, formerly a United States sen- 
ator from Alabama, came to Bismarck and secured the introduction of a bill for 
that purpose in the Senate. It is known in the records as Senate Bill No. 167. 
It passed that body by more than a two-thirds vote. 

Governor Miller then marshalled the force opposed to the lottery- scheme and 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 425 

organized and conducted a vigorous and successful fight among the House 
members to prevent its passage in the House, or securing a two-thirds vote. He 
raised funds to circulate petitions remonstrating against the passage of the law, 
employed detectives to secure evidence of suspected bribery and corruption, 
inspired the publication of articles in the press opposing the lotterj' scheme, 
secured protests and letters from prominent business men and bankers of St. 
Paul, Minneapolis, Chicago and New York, all of which petitions, protests and 
letters were presented to the House and appear in its journal, and commanded 
representative men of all professions and c-lasses in the state, who hastened to 
Bismarck and aided him in his efforts to defeat the bill. On its votes taken on 
the question of its reading and on motions to postpone its consideration, or 
resubmit it for amendment, the measure commanded only thirty-nine votes in 
the House, less than two-thirds vote of all the members elected. 

The Congress of the United States enacted a law prohibiting the carriage of 
lottery tickets by corporations engaged in the transportation of interstate com- 
modities, and lottery and gift enterprise tickets were denied the use of the 
United States mails. The lottery advocates thus seeing their "occupation gone," 
as no lottery scheme could be worked to any advantage in the United States, 
abandoned the fight and on February loth the House agreed to indefinite 
postponement of Senate Bill No. 167, and thus the lottery scheme went to its 
death. 

Governor Miller's administration of state affairs was satisfactory to the peo- 
])le. They admired him as a man, believed in his policies and regretted his refusal 
to be a candidate for a second term. Upon the expiration of his term he moved 
to Duluth, Minn., where he engaged in a grain brokerage business and died 
there, October 26, 1908. 

ADMINISTRATION OF ANDREW H. BURKE 

Andrew H. Burke, a banker of Cass County, who was the successor of 
Miller, served as governor from January, 1890, to January, 1892. The leading 
feature of his administration were laws enacted by the Legislature for a military 
code authorizing the issuance of state bonds in the sum of $150,000 to pay 
North Dakota's share of the indebtedness of the Territory of Dakota, a general 
election law, a law to promote irrigation, and a law empowering the governor to 
appoint a commission to compile the laws. This commission discovered in 
searching the statutes, that there was no law for the election of presidential 
electors ; its absence debarring the people from voting for the President, or for a 
state canvassing board to canvass the vote cast for Congress, presidential electors, 
state, legislative or judicial officers. The commission reported this fact to the 
governor in May, 1891, who called a special session of the Legislature to convene 
at Bismarck on June i, 1891. 

In the meantime, the commission prepared bills to remedy the defects, and 
Governor Burke submitted them to the Legislature, which enacted them and the 
state voted for electors the first time in 1892, when Grover Cleveland was elected 
to the presidency. Governor Burke vetoed a bill favored by the farmers' alliance, 
which compelled railroads to lease sites on their right of way for the building of 



426 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

elevators and warehouses, for the storage of grain, on terms and conditions 
obnoxious to the railroads. 

The governor considered the bill unconstitutional. The farmers' alliance 
resented his action and joining forces with the democrats formed a fusion 
party and although Burke had been nominated by the dominant republican party 
for a second term, defeated him at the polls. Like his predecessor, John Miller, 
he left the state and engaged in the grain business at Duluth, Minn., but was 
unsuccessful. When he was appointed through the influence of Senator Nelson, 
of Minnesota, an inspector of United States land offices, he moved with his 
family to Washington, D. C, but toward the close of McKinley's first adminis- 
tration moved to the State of Colorado, and later to New Mexico. 

THE SHORTEIDGE ADMINISTRATION 

The farmers' alliance, the populists and the democrats of the state fused .nnd 
elected Eli C. D. Shortridge, of Grand Forks County, as the successor of Burke. 
As forty-nine days of the session of the Legislature which convened during his 
regime as governor were consumed in the election of a United States senator, 
there was little time for law making, and outside of appropriations for the main- 
tenance of the public institutions of the state the principal laws enacted and 
approved by the governor, were a law authorizing the issuance of $50,000 of bonds 
to construct the south wing of the capitol building. The governor was chairman 
of the building committee and constructed this wing in 1894; a law creating a 
commission to revise and codify the laws; a general drainage law; the purchase 
of an executive mansion ; and an appropriation for a state elevator at Duluth, 
Minn. This was a pet measure of his administration, and was earnestly sup- 
ported by Governor Shortridge ; a constitutional amendment prohibiting lottery 
and gift enterprises was passed by the Legislature and referred to the ne.xt suc- 
ceeding Legislature to be, if approved by it, submitted to a vote of the people. 

Governor Shortridge as chairman of the State Auditing Board, refused to 
audit or direct the payment of the accounts of the compilation commission, which 
had been appointed by Governor Burke, and had completed its labors, and made 
final report of its doings to the Legislature. This commission brought an action 
in the nature of mandamus in the District Court of Grand Forks County, before 
Chas. F. Templeton, judge, who granted an order directing him as chairman of 
the State Auditing Board to audit the accounts, and the state auditor to issue 
his warrants in payment thereof, or show cause why they should not so do. 
Upon the hearing of this order, the state was represented by William H. Standish, 
its attorney-general ; John G. Hamilton, chairman of the commission, appeared 
for it. After taking testimony and listening to argument by the respective coun- 
sel. Judge Templeton granted a peremptory writ of mandamus which ordered 
the governor to audit the accounts, the auditor to issue his warrants upon the 
state treasurer, for the amount of the same, and the state treasurer to pay theni: 
No appeal to the Supreme Court was taken from this writ and the governor 
approved the accounts, the state auditor issued his warrants therefor, and they 
were paid by the treasurer. 

The balloting for United States senator began on January i8th, the leading 
candidates were Lyman R. Casey, a republican, and John D. Benton and William 



^am.'T^ 




ELI C. D. SHORTRIDGE 
Governor of North Dakota, 1893-4 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 427 

N. Roach, democrats, though many other persons received compHmentary votes. 
The repubhcans who had a nominal majority of the Legislature, held a caucus 
and agreed upon Mr. Casey as their candidate, but through some invisible influ- 
ence, twelve republicans refused to enter the caucus, or be bound by its action. 
On the sixty-first ballot taken on the forty-ninth day, six republicans from Grand 
Forks County, together with other republicans from Burleigh. Cass, Pembina and 
Walsh counties, voted for the democratic candidate, William N. Roach, who 
received fifty votes, and was declared elected senator. 

Alexander McKenzie, who was the principal manager of Casey's campaign, 
characterized the political apostasy of the republicans who voted for Roach, by 
saying: 'T bow to the Benedict Arnolds and traitors of North Dakota." 

When Governor Shortridge retired from his office, he was deeply involved 
financially. He was appointed clerk of the United States Land Office at Devils 
Lake, to which city he moved and where he died, February 4, 1908. 

GOVERNOR SHORTRIDGE 

Eli C. D. Shortridge was boni in Cabell county. West Virginia, March 29, 1830. 
When he was three years of age, his parents settled in Monroe county, Missouri. 
He was educated in the district schools of the neighborhood and later at an 
academy at Paris, Mo. In i860 he was married to Virginia Brady of Hannibal, 
Mo. The first Mrs. Shortridge passed away in 1880. In 1882 he was married to 
Miss Anna Burton of Moberly, Mo., at which time he moved his family to North 
Dakota, taking up his residence at Larimore, Grand Forks county. He later 
owned a large farm eight miles north of Larimore, where he resided when elected 
governor in 1892 on the fusion ticket of democrats and populists, serving one term. 
He was closely identified with the early struggles of the pioneers of North Dakota, 
and was deeply loyal to the state and all its interests to the day of his death. His 
last active part in politics was the nominating of John Burke for the office of 
governor at a state convention of democrats at Minot ; Burke served three con- 
secutive terms, and was in office at time of ex-Governor Shortridge's death, 
February 4, 1908. 

Mrs. Shortridge and five children survive the ex-governor ; three by his first 
marriage, Charles G. Shortridge of Thunder Hawk, S. D., and Miss Lila \'. Short- 
ridge and Mrs. D. A. Stewart of Spokane, Wash. And the twin daughters by his 
last : Juliette — Mrs. Orville C. Duell of New Rockford, N. D. — and Frances — 
Mrs. "n. C. Barrett of Church's Ferry, N. D. 

Governor Shortridge was a true man, a loyal citizen, a faithful executive, con- 
scientious and competent. 

THE ROGER ALLIN ADMINISTRATION 

Roger Allin, a republican and farmer of Walsh County, succeeded Shortridge. 
No legislation of special import was submitted to him for approval, except the 
garnishment laws, laws for the protection of dairy products, establishing a fish 
hatchery providing for a geological survey of the state, and creating a historical 
commission, and the general appropriations for the support and maintenance of 
the public institutions of the state. The Legislative Assembly of the Shortridge 



428 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

administration in anticipation that the state would have sufficient revenue from 
taxes to meet the same, had made large appropriations for all state purposes. The 
panic of 1893 caused a depression of business throughout the nation, crops were 
poor in the state, and the prices obtained for farm products low, and as a conse- 
quence the people were unable to pay their taxes, and a heavy indebtedness 
incurred by virtue of the appropriations of the Shortridge administration existed 
at its close. 

The Allin administration inherited it. The Legislative Assembly overlooked 
this fact, and made appropriations of the public money in excess of the current 
revenue from taxes, with the intent, as Governor Allin believed and so expressed 
himself at the time, to discredit his administration. When the appropriations bills 
reached him, he, reasoning from his experience in careful and successful man- 
agement of his own affairs, felt that he was rebuking the tendency to excessive 
appropriations, and was leading up to rigid economy, which was the watchword 
of his administration, availed himself of the constitutional provision, which 
empowered the governor to veto separate items of the appropriation bill, and 
vetoed the items for the maintenance of the university, and the normal schools 
at Valley City and Mayville, reducing the appropriations for Valley City and 
Mayville from $24,000 and $24,860 to $4,600 and $7,760 respectively ; the univer- 
sity from $63,000 to $15,980, or merely enough to complete the current college year. 
The agricultural college received $11,250 of the $19,000 appropriated bv the 
Legislature. 

This act was severely criticized and condemned by the people living in Grand 
Forks, Traill and Barnes counties, as unnecessary and a discrimination against 
the educational interests of the state. The people residing in the immediate 
vicinity of these institutions, together with others from other parts of the state, 
and from friends of education from other states, raised sufficient funds to main- 
tain them for two years. Subscriptions to the amount of $24,513.90 were secured 
from private sources, for the maintenance of the university, $1,287.50 was con- 
tributed from outside the state. The amount contributed for the support of the 
normal schools of Mayville and Valley City is not a matter of record. 

Receipts and in some instances certificates were issued to these contributors, 
the expectation being that the state would in the near future redeem them. These 
receipts and certificates were in no sense legal obligations of the state, but they 
were issued by the trustees appointed to govern these institutions and certainly 
are moral obligations of the state, and should be redeemed by the state. No gov- 
ernor of the state, however, has had, in view of the financial resources of the 
state, the courage to recommend their redemption, and no Legislature the courage 
to appropriate therefor. 

The action of Governor Allin in vetoing these appropriations contributed to 
defeating his nomination by his party for a second term to which he aspired. 
He retired from public life at the end of one term as governor and continued 
living moderately and quietly at his home in Park River, Walsh County, as a 
retired farmer. 

FRANK A. BRIGGS AND JOSEPH M. DEVINE ADMINISTRATION 

Frank A. Briggs of Mandan, a republican, was the successor of Governor 
Allin. He had filled with conspicuous ability the office of state auditor, and 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 429 

understood the financial resources of the state, and was well equipped to admin- 
ister its affairs, but unfortunately he died of tuberculosis in July, 1898, and 
Joseph M. Devine, by virtue of his office as lieutenant-governor, filled the unex- 
pired term. 

During the life time of Governor Briggs, the Legislative Assembly passed 
and he approved a general railway law regulating the transportation of pas- 
sengers and freight, and a general revenue law, many of its provisions having 
been suggested by the governor. The system of taxation prescribed in this law 
has stood since as the law of the state with but little change. One section was 
held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. 

THE FANCHER ADMINISTRATION 

Frederick B. Fancher, of Jamestown, a republican, who had been president 
of the constitutional convention and served the state with rare fidelity as insur- 
ance commissioner, for four years, was inaugurated governor in January, 181)9. 
The most notable event of his administration was the establishment of a twine 
and cordage plant in the penitentiary. He was renominated by his party for gov- 
ernor, but by reason of ill health declined the honor. He moved to Sacramento, 
Cal., in 1900, and there engaged in mercantile pursuits. 

ADMINISTRATION OF FRANK WHITE 

When Governor Fancher declined a renomination by his party, the Republi- 
can State Committee substituted Frank White of Valley City for the place. 
Mr. White had made a reputation as a soldier in the Philippines, where he served 
as a major in the First North Dakota. He had proved himself "in stern fight a 
warrior grim, in camp a leader sage." He was not only a courageous and effi- 
cient soldier, but an experienced legislator. He had a good grasp of civil affairs. 
He was elected in November, 1900, inaugurated in January, 1901, and served as 
governor until January, 1905. 

During his administration the Legislature passed and he approved laws 
establishing an electric railway line from the capitol building to the penitentiary, 
to be owned and operated by the state, and establishing an institution for the feeble 
minded at Grafton. 

The north wing of the capitol building was constructed during his admin- 
istration, and funds for the same were provided by the issuance of $100,000 of 
bonds secured by the lands granted by the National Government to the state for 
the erection of a capitol building and other public buildings at the seat of gov- 
ernment. The necessity for additional buildings and equipment for the public 
institutions of the state was imperative, and the financial resources of the state 
were insufficient to meet them. The state could not issue bonds for the purpose, 
as its debt limit of $200,000 was reached, and the scheme was devised for the 
issuance of bonds to be known as institution bonds. The payment of the interest 
and principal thereof to be secured by the pledge of the lands allotted to each 
institution from the grant of 500.000 acres of land by the United States. By 
various acts of the Legislature, the normal school, the university and school of 
mines, the agricultural college, the hospital for the insane, and the blind asylum. 



430 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

the deaf and dumb asylum, and the industrial school, were authorized to issue 
bonds which aggregated a total of $581,000. 

The bonds of the normal school at Valley City in the sum of $60,000, for the 
erection of necessary buildings, were issued. They were to run for twenty years, 
with annual interest at 4 per cent, and were sold to the Board of University and 
School Lands at par. The warrant of the Board of University and School Lands 
was drawn on the funds in the custody of Daniel H. McMillan, state treasurer, 
who refused to honor the same. The Board of LTniversity and School Lands then 
sued out a writ of mandamus in the Supreme Court to compel the state treasurer 
to pay the warrant, and place the bonds to the credit of the Board of University 
and School Lands, or show cause why he should not do the same. 

In this action the Board of University and School Lands were represented 
by C. N. Frich, the attorney-general of the state, and Guy C. H. Corliss, of 
Grand Forks. Newman, Spalding & Stambaugh, of Fargo, appeared for the 
state treasurer. The court denied the writ. It held that the state constitution 
restricted the board in investing funds for the permanent school fund to four 
classes of securities, among which is "bonds of the State of North Dakota." 
And bonds of the State of North Dakota included only such bonds as are valid 
and constitutional within the constitutional debt limit and so certified by the state 
auditor and secretary of state, the payment of which is provided for by an irre- 
pcalable tax levy in the act which authorized their issuance. That the act which 
authorized the issuance of $60,000 in bonds to procure funds to erect and equip 
buildings of the State Normal School at Valley City, and appropriating a suffi- 
cient portion of the interest and income dedicated to the support of that institu- 
tion to repay the principal and pay the interest on the sum so borrowed is imcon- 
stitutional and void, as it authorized the creation of a state debt in excess of the 
state debt limit and violates, therefore, the state constitution. 

2. It authorizes the creation of a state debt and does not provide for a tax 
levy to pay the principal and interest as required by the constitution. 

3. It diverts the interest and income dedicated to the support of this insti- 
tution to the payment of a state debt in violation both of the Enabling z\ct, and 
of the state constitution. 

John M. Cochrane, judge of the Supreme Court, died on the 20th day of July. 
1904, and the governor appointed Edward Engerud, of Fargo, to the vacancy 
thus created- 

The Legislature also created the Eighth Judicial District, and the governor 
appointed L. J. Palda, of Minot, judge of this district. 

Upon the expiration of his second term, Governor White returned to his home 
at Valley City and engaged in the insurance business, and was appointed by 
Governor Hanna in 191 5 as a member of the Board of Regents, which has the 
charge of all the educational institutions of the state. 

THE SARLES .\DMINISTR;\TrON 

Elmore H. Sarles, a banker of Hillsboro, Traill County, was elected to suc- 
ceed Governor White in November, 1904, and was inaugurated governor in 
January, 1905. Governor Sarles was a sagacious, prudent and far-seeing business 
man, and his administration is notable for measures tending to promote the 




GOVEKXOR E. V. SAKLICS 



KA.RLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 431 

material interests and protect the morals and health of the state, and to improve 
the government of cities and municipalities of the state. 

Among the laws tending to advocate and improve and promote the state's 
material interests, were: 

1. A complete irrigation code. 

2. Providing for the creation and regulation of water users" associations. 

3. Regulating the manufacturing and sale of dairy products. 

4. Organization of life insurance companies. 

5. Organization and regulation of state banks, placing them under the super- 
vision and control of a state banking board. 

6. Regulating the operation of automobiles. 

7. Providing for a state census. 

8. Creating the office of inspector of weights and measures. 

9. Providing for the compilation and publishing of the revised codes of 1905. 
To protect the health of the people, were: 

10. A pure drug law. 

11. A pure food law. 

To improve the government of cities and other municipalities, were : 

12. A new charter for cities. 

13. Establishment of park districts for cities. 

14. The right of way for electric roads in cities. 

15. Providing police for unorganized towns. 

16. To preserve the purity of election, our primary election law. 

The Legislative Assembly of 1905 enacted a law also for the reconstruction 
of the capitol building and the erection of a suitable residence for the governor, 
on lots owned by the state, by a board of capitol commissioners, appointed by 
the governor, by and with the consent of the Senate. 

Governor Sarles appointed as such commission William Budge, of Grand 
Forks; Dan J. Laxdahl. of Cavalier, and Andrew Sandager, of Lisbon; who 
were promptly confirmed by the Senate. They gave the bonds required by the 
statute and organized by the selection of William Budge as chairman and Thomas 
Shaw of Pembina as secretary. The board was required by the statute to utilize 
in the plans and specifications for the capitol building the newly constructed 
north wing, and so much of the other portions of the capitol building as in their 
opinion could be used to advantage with regard to appearance and ser\-iceable- 
ness of the building, and to sell such material in the present state capitol building 
as they deemed to be unavailable for use in the building and pay the proceeds 
thereof to the state treasurer to be credited by him to the capitol building fund. 

APPROPRIATIONS 

The Legislature appropriated for building capitol and executive mansion the 
sum of $600,000. To obtain this sum the Board of University and School Lands 
were by '^hh same statute directed to sell sufficient lands belonging to the state 
and granted for the purpose of erecting public buildings and capitol building, 
by the act of Congress, known as the Enabling Act, or Omnibus Bill. 

In anticipation of the receipts of proceeds from the sales of such lands, the 
commission was authorized to issue certificates of indebtedness in a sum not 



432 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

exceeding six hundred thousand dollars bearing 5 per cent interest, payable 
annually. 

The commission advertised for bids, and an application was made to the 
Supreme Court upon the relation of George Rusk for a writ of injunction. 
George A. Bangs, John A. Sorley of Grand Forks, and Burleigh F. Spalding of 
Fargo, represented the relator. C. N. Frich, attorney-general of the state, and 
Tracy R. Bangs, who had been retained by the commission to assist the attorney- 
general, appeared for the commission. The Supreme Court held the law uncon- 
stitutional and invalid, as an unwarranted delegation of legislative power in that 
the commission had unlimited discretion as to the cost of the capitol building, and 
the cost of the executive mansion, though by the way limited to $600,000. 

No specific sum for capitol or mansion was appropriated by the Legislature 
and agents or officers of a state are not invested with powers of a purely gov- 
ernmental or legislative character, it should be noted here that this commission 
were de facto officers for some services, and in good faith incurred some expenses 
outside of the compensation allowed them by the statute. They retained Tracy 
R. Bangs to defend the commission law in the Supreme Court, but when the 
decision of the court was against them they failed to pay him for his services 
rendered in that capacity and the Legislature of the future, it is to be hoped, will 
provide the necessary funds to cover this expense. 

GOVERNOR RENOMINATED 

Governor Sarles was renominated by his party in convention assembled for 
the governorship. While as governor he had administered the fiscal affairs of 
the state with sagacity and fidelity, yet this was forgotten by the people and 
because he had appointed John Knauf, of Jamestown, to the Supreme Court to 
fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge N. C. Young, he incurred 
the opposition of the lawyers of the state, who were favorable to Judge Charles 
J. Fisk, and this opposition, together with that of the State Enforcement League 
and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and prohibition defeated him at 
the polls. At the expiration of his term of office he returned to Hillsboro, con- 
tinued in his banking business and engaged also extensively in farming and 
dealing in real estate. 

JOHN BURKE -XDMINISTRATION 

John Burke, a lawyer of Devils Lake, was elected governor in 1906, after a 
strenuous campaign during which he canvassed all portions of the state with 
such force, political skill and foresight in the formation and management of 
political parties as to secure the endorsement and the support of the radical 
progressive element in the republican party, as well as the prohibition pany. 
This coalition stood with him throughout his gubernatorial career; as a conse- 
quence, although in political faith, he was a democrat, he was re-elected governor 
in a republican state and served in that capacity three consecutive terms. His 
administration is particularly notable for legislation to enforce the prohibition 
law and to advance the cause of temperance in the state. The prohibition law 
of 1889, was strengthened and its enforcement facilitated by laws advocated and 




EX-OOVERNOR JOHX BIRKE 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 433 

approved by him, which authorized the seizure and confiscation of intoxicating 
Hquors imported into the state with or without a warrant, holding the owner of 
a building where hquor was kept for sale and sold as a beverage liable for the 
unlawful use, druggists' permits were to be granted by District Courts, after 
hearing of the application therefor, notice of application to be published for 
thirty days preceding the hearing. Liquor advertising was declared unlawful. 
The use of liquor on passenger trains, or in state institutions was prohibited, 
and the giving away or distribution of liquor to be used as a beverage was de- 
clared a violation of the prohibition law. Most important of all the actions to 
enforce the prohibition law was the one authorizing the appointment of a tem- 
perance commission and making an appropriation of $8,000 to carry out its 
provisions. The commission was authorized and empowered to exercise in every 
part of the state all of the common law and statutory powers of the states 
attorneys in the enforcement of the law against the manufacture and sale of 
intoxicating liquor, and empowering also the appointment of deputies and special 
enforcement sheriffs where the local authorities failed to enforce the law. The 
Supreme Court of the state in "Ex Parte Corliss," reported in 16 N. D. 470, 
held the law unconstitutional, as it sought to displace the regularly elected states 
attorney and sheriflf in any county so far as the enforcement of the "prohibition 
law"' was concerned. "The framers of the constitution considered it more con- 
ducive to the public welfare to have the functions of these officers performed by 
the officers elected by the people, than to entrust them to officers otherwise chosen." 

In the direction of political reform during his administration there was enacted 
a general primary election law, a corrupt practice act, and providing for the 
primary election of delegates to national conventions of all parties and appro- 
priating $200 to each delegate to presidential national conventions to cover his 
expenses. 

In the line of economy and to promote the general public welfare was the 
establishment of a hail insurance department in the office of the commissioner 
of insurance, the creation of a tax commission to supervise the assessment and 
collection of revenue of the state, and to discover and place on the tax roll prop- 
erty heretofore escaping taxation. 

In the same line of economy was the creation of a board of control of the 
normal schools of the state, and a board of control for the management of the 
charitable and reformatory and penal institutions, also an arlti-pass law. 

A feature of Burke's administration which won him the confidence and com- 
mendation of the people, was his unremitting attention to his public duties ; to 
his private affairs and professional practice, he gave no time. All his energies 
and abilities were devoted to the state. His insistence that all state officers should, 
during their office life, reside at the "seat of government" and personally super- 
vise and conduct the affairs of their respective offices, instead of leaving their 
administration to the care of deputies while they pursued their private business 
at their homes, as had in many instances in past administrations been done, was 
also a feature that contributed largely to his popularity with the people. 

During his regime as governor, Martin N. Johnson, who had been elected 
United States senator to succeed Henry C. Hansbrough, died, and he appointed 
Judge Fountain L. Thompson, of Cando, to fill the unexpired term until a meet- 
ing of the Legislature. Judge Thompson served for a few months when he 



434 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

resigned because of impaired health, and Governor Burke then appointed Wil- 
Ham E. Purcell, of Wahpeton, as his successor. 

NON-PARTISAN APrOINTMENTS 

Jjurke was not a partisan when it was his duty to select judges either for the 
Supreme Court or District Court; in filling such positions he selected lawyers 
of unquestioned integrity and who possessed the legal knowledge and attainments 
befitting a judge. 

In 1907 he appointed Burleigh F. Spalding, a republican judge of the Supreme 
Court, as the successor of Edward Engerud, resigned. 

In January, 1909, when the membership of the Supreme Court was increased 
from three to five, he appointed John Carmody, of Hillsboro, a democrat, and 
S. E. Ellsworth, of Jamestown, a republican, as judges of the Supreme Court. 

In 191 1, upon the death of Judge David E. Morgan, he appointed Andrew 
A. Bruce, dean of the University Law School, a republican, to fill the vacancy. 

In 1907 Charles J. Fisk was elected to the Supreme Court, thus leaving a 
vacancy in the First Judicial District. To fill this vacancy he appointed' Charles 
F. Templeton, a democrat. 

Judge E. B. Goss, of the Eighth Judicial District, was elected to the Supreme 
bench and he appointed K. E. Leighton, a republican, to fill the vacancy. 

On the election of E. T. Burke to the Supreme Court, J, E. Cofifey, a democrat, 
was appointed in the fifth district. 

Upon the creation of the Eleventh Judicial District, he appointed Frank Fisk, 
a democrat, as the first judge thereof, and similarly upon the creation by the 
Legislature of the Twelfth Judicial District, he appointed S. L. Nuchols, of 
Mandan, a democrat, as judge of the district. 

In the Baltimore convention, which nominated Woodrow Wilson for Presi- 
dent, Burke was the choice of his party in this state for vice president, and he 
polled a very substantial vote in the convention for that office. Among the early 
official appointments of President Wilson, was his appointment of John Burke as 
treasurer of the United States, which office he now holds. 

ADMINISTRATION OF LOUIS B. IIANNA 

The republican party in 1911 was in a demoralized condition, being split into 
factions who were fighting among themselves for political supremacy, and it 
was apparent that unless a leader could be found, able to compose the differences 
of the discordant elements and sufficiently strong with the people to secure their 
support at the polls, there was eminent danger of its disintegration, and a per- 
petuation of democratic fusion rule in the state. The thinking conservative 
republicans regarded Louis B. Hanna, of Fargo, as the most available man for 
the purpose and solicited him to become a candidate for the governorship in the 
primary election to be held in June. Among the reasons which induced these 
elements to unite on Hanna, was his record as a legislator in both branches of 
the Legislature, where he had shown unusual capacity in advocating measures 
for the betterment of the people. The fidelity with which he looked after the 
interests of the state in Congress also commanded the respect and confidence of 



i 




HON. LOriS I!. HAXXA 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 435 

all classes. "The need of the hour" was a man not only experienced in legis- 
lative procedure, but one trained in business affairs, who could extricate the 
state from its financial difificulties and keep it moving forward on safe and sane 
lines. Hanna responded to this call and became a candidate for the governor- 
ship at the primaries in June, 1912, and was nominated and elected governor in 
November, 1912. He resigned his seat in Congress, was inaugurated governor 
in January, 1913, and delivered his inaugural message to the Legislative Assembly 
on January 10, 1913. The message dwelt upon the educational necessities in the 
state, especially the need of better schools in the country districts, to keep the 
farmers upon their farms by providing schools that would furnish to country 
children the same opportunity for higher education as those enjoyed by children 
in cities. Efficient high grade schools should be established in the districts to 
equip the boys and girls for their life work as well as to relieve the state institu- 
tions from doing secondary school work. In lucid, pertinent and persuasive 
language. Hanna recommended the adoption of a uniform system of accounting 
and reporting by the state. The same system should be used in every state 
institution and there should be a uniformity of system in all county auditors and 
treasurers' offices. The state institutions should have such a system as would 
enable their managing officers to render a trial balance of receipts and disburse- 
ments at all times and should send such trial balance at the close of each month 
to the auditor of state. He expressed the hope that legislation would be enacted 
to warrant and empower the governor to employ a firm of expert accountants to 
inaugurate a uniform system of accounting throughout the state. 

The Legislature responded to this recommendation. It empowered the 
governor to employ accountants to devise and inaugurate a system and appro- 
priated funds to cover the expense. For ihe first time in the history of the state 
the land grant of the state was "checked up" and adjusted and every depart- 
ment of state was accurately audited from the beginning, and a uniform system 
of accounts was established in each department of the state, and in every state 
institution. The system is in force in many of the coimties and is being extended 
to incorporated cities and towns. Its value can not be over-estimated, and credit 
must be given Mr. Hanna not only for suggesting this system, but also for putting 
it in force. 

He suggested the desirability of a "state fire marshal" and the Legislature 
created the office and authorized him to appoint one. 

He further recommended that some provision be made whereby commercial 
traveling men, railroad men, and railway mail clerks could vote when away from 
home, and the "absent voting" law resulted. 

He suggested that the game law be amended so as to prohibit spring shooting 
of geese, and the establishment of a "state fish hatchery" with an appropriation 
of a sufficient sum from the general fund to maintain it, instead of using for 
that purpose a part of the "game fund." The Legislature adopted this suggestion 
and enacted the necessary laws. 

He stated in his message that the coal imported into the state was not of the 
quality or standard the people paid for, and as a consequence the Legislature 
provided for coal inspection and the quality of coal shipped into the state has 
materially improved. 



436 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

EXIIICITS OF PRODUCTS 

The opening of the Panama Canal and the prospective advantage to the state 
therefrom were briefly referred to and his suggestion that the state would be 
benefited by an exhibition of its products, its soil and grasses, at the Panama 
Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco, was favorably considered and 
an appropriation was granted for the erection of a building to house the exhibits. 

BATTLESHIP '"NORTH DAKOTA" 

During the administration of Governor Burke, the battleship North Dakota 
was launched and a fund to purchase a silver service to be presented to the ship 
by proposed subscription of $i from individuals was raised. The "silver service" 
was ordered but the fund contributed during the Burke regime was $2,500 less 
than its costs. This sum Governor Hanna raised by private contributions, and he 
personally presented the service to the ship. May 5, 191 5. 

The fiftieth anniversary of the decisive battle of Gettysburg was celebrated 
in July, 1913, by a reunion of the survivors of the Civil war, both Union and 
Confederate, and he asked the Legislature "as a matter of sentiment and patriot- 
ism'' to appropriate money to defray the expenses of all the old veterans in the 
state who could attend the reunion. The Legislature made the appropriation. 
Governor Hanna accompanied the soldiers from the state and participated in 
all the events of that great occasion. He was not a soldier himself, as he was 
bom in 1861, but was a son of a soldier who had fought at Gettysburg. It is 
needless to add that no part of the legislative appropriation was used by him. 
He defrayed his own expenses and the old soldiers had the benefit of the state 
appropriation. 

EXPERIMENTAL STATION 

During his career in Congress he was largely instrumental in securing an 
"experimental station" to be located in the north section of the "great plains" 
to demonstrate the kind and character of plants, shrubs and trees adapted to the 
climate and soil of the semi-arid lands of the United States. The "station" was 
located near the City of Mandan. To secure this location for the state it was 
stipulated that 320 acres of land adjoining land purchased by the Government, 
should be deeded to the North Dakota Agricultural College for the use of the 
"department of agriculture" in the establishment and maintenance of a field 
station in conducting experiments in dry land agriculture. This land was pur- 
chased and deeded by the citizens of Mandan. The governor recommended that 
us the experimental station was for the benefit of the whole state, these citizens 
should be reimbursed. The Legislature complied. 

His experience as a banker convinced him that the people should be protected 
in their investments in bonds and stocks. The state had been exploited by min- 
ing, oil and insurance companies with little substance or capital behind them, to 
the great financial loss of many of its citizens. The Legislature passed what 
is popularly known as "The Blue Sky Law." It affords the desired protection. 
The Legislature of 1913 appropriated $8,000 for an exhibit at Christiania, Nor- 
way, the governor appointed a commission to gather exhibits of the products of 




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EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 437 

the state, photographs of farm buildings, churches, educational buildings erected 
by Scandinavian people, all tending to show the progress and advancement of 
Norway's sons in this state, and the opportunities which the state afforded for 
future emigrants. A fund was raised by the citizens of all nationalities and a 
statue of Abraham Lincoln was bought. The governor, the members of his 
staff, and a large committee of prominent Scandinavians accompanied the "com- 
mission" to Norway, and Governor Hanna personally, in behalf of the citizens 
of North Dakota, presented the statue of Abraham Lincoln to the King of Nor- 
way. The King of Norway in September, 191 5, conferred upon Governor Hanna 
"the order of St. Olaf" of the first class. It is the highest civic decoration given 
l>y the Norwegian government. 

During Governor Hanna's absence in Norway a primary election campaign 
for the nomination of governor and state officers was on. The governor was a 
candidate for re-nomination. No opposition was anticipated. His management 
of the fiscal affairs of the state justified the belief that he would be endorsed 
by all factions of his party. In the distribution of the patronage at his disposal 
he had recognized all factions, all his appointments were based on the ability 
and character of the appointee to render efficient, honest and economic service to 
the state, rather than as rewards for political service. There was not enough 
patronage to reward all the applicants, the disappointed ones and a few irrecon- 
cilable progressives initiated a campaign of opposition, notwithstanding which 
Hanna was re-nominated and re-elected in November, 1914. He was inaugurated 
for his second term in January, 191 5. 

FINANCES 

Governor Hanna's message to the Fourteenth Legislative Assembly was de- 
voted mainly to the finances of the state. An examination of the financial condi- 
tion of the state disclosed the fact that in January, 1913, when he entered upon 
the ofiice of governor, the state had an outstanding indebtedness of $500,479.99. 
There was cash in the state treasury to the credit of the general fund to the 
amount of $71,496.94. It was estimated that there would be received from un- 
collected taxes of the past biennial period enough to reduce this indebtedness to 
approximately $300,000. 

The income of the state from all sources was inadequate to pay for the main- 
tenance of the state government and meet the appropriation for state institutions 
and miscellaneous subjects authorized by the Legislature. The state was de- 
riving revenue from oil inspection, to the amount of about one hundred thousand 
dollars a year, but the oil companies of the state instituted an action contesting 
the constitutionality of this law, as a revenue producer, and the state was enjoined 
from the collection of the fees for inspection pending the final determination of 
the action. If the Supreme Court should hold that the fees for oil inspection 
could legally be exacted to cover the cost of inspection only, and that the present 
law went beyond this, and was a law to raise revenue, the court would declare the 
law invalid, and about $100,000 due for inspection of oils would be uncollectable. 
There was therefore an imperative need of increased revenue to meet the cur- 
rent expenses. To meet this prospective deficiency the Legislature enacted an 
inheritance tax. and the state board of equalization in August, 1915. raised the 



438 EARLY HISTORY OF xXORTH DAKOTA 

assessment of real and personal property as returned by the county auditors to the 
state auditor, nearly forty million dollars. 

The constitution of the state limits the levy for all state purposes to 4 mills, 
but authorizes an additional levy sufficient to pay the interest on the public debt. 
The levy for state purposes is made by the state board of equalization, but the 
Legislature had made levies for specific purposes to the amount of 1.47 mills, 
this deducted from 4 mills left but 2.53 mills that could be levied for the general 
fund to conduct the business of the state. This would yield an amount entirely 
inadequate to pay the current expenses of the state for any one fiscal year, and it 
was necessary, therefore, for the Legislature to cease making special levies. 

BUDGET PRESENTED 

Governor Hanna had learned in Congress that it was a wise plan to have an 
estimate or budget of the probable expenditures of the state of the coming 
biennial period, as well as an estimate of the revenue. Mr. Hanna prepared such 
a budget and submitted it to the Legislature. It was the first time in the history 
of the state that an efifort had been made to put the state expenses together and 
have a bill that in one measure covered the major expenses of the state. 

BONDED INDEBTEDNESS 

The bonded indebtedness of the state on January i, 191 3, was $937,300: all 
but $200,000 of this amount was for territorial bonds which the state assumed 
and agreed to pay when the Territory of Dakota was divided. In the intervening 
period between January i. 19T3, and January i, 1915. bonds to the amount of 
$320,000 were paid from the fund and actually retired, and on July i, 1915, an 
additional issue of $55,300 of bonds was paid and retired, leaving a bonded 
indebtedness at that date of $562,000 and reducing the actual interest account 
of the state by some $18,000. 

BOARD OF REGENTS 

The governor recommended that all of the state educational institutions be 
placed under the control and management of a single board to be known as the 
board of regents. He deemed this advisable not only from the standpoint of 
economy, but also as he cogently expressed it, it would "delocalize and make 
them state institutions." The necessary legislation creating a board of regents 
and repealing laws which provided separate boards or trustees of each institution 
was enacted. The governor was authorized and it was his duty to nominate 
before March 2, 191 5, and by and with the consent of the Senate to appoint a 
board of five persons who were to meet at the seat of government on the first 
Tuesday in April, 1915, and organize. The governor nominated as members of 
the first board, Lewis F. Crawford, of Sentinel Butte, former Governor Frank 
White, of Valley City, Dr. J. D. Taylor, of Grand Forks, Emil Scow, of Bow- 
man, and James A. Power, of Leonard, and they were confirmed by the Senate, 
but they were prevented from organizing in April, as F. B. Hellstrom invoked 
the provisions of the referendum law and circulated petitions to have it sub- 
mitted to a vote of the people. He failed, however, to obtain the required 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 439 

number of signatures, and the board organized on the 8th day of July, 191 5, by 
the election of Lewis F. Crawford, as president, Frank White, as vice president, 
and Charles Brewer, as secretary. The board is a very able one, all its members 
are college bred men, and are well equipped to manage the fiscal affairs of the 
institutions. 

IMMIGRATION 

Another measure that Air. Hanna advocated and the Legislature approved 
was the creation of a State Board of Immigration. It is highly probable that 
the disastrous war in Europe will lead to an exodus of farmers from the coun- 
tries involved, after its close. The state needs the farmers and artisans and an 
effort should be made to secure a part of this emigration. An appropriation for 
this purpose of $25,000, available for maintenance of the board of immigration 
in 1915, and $35,000 available for maintenance in 1916, was enacted and it re- 
dounds to the credit of Mr. Hanna that he persuaded the Legislature to take up 
this work for the first time. The organization of this board has, however, been 
prevented by the circulation of petitions under the referendum law. One form of 
the petitions is directed against the law in its entirety, another against the appro- 
priation section. Neither petition secured the requisite number of signatures to 
suspend the law, but both combined did, and an action followed to compel the 
organization of the board on the ground that the petitions can not be combined, 
and therefore the law is in full force and effect. 

DOURINE 

By reason of the spread of a disease known as dourine among horses, many 
of the farmers and stockmen of the state suffered great losses. It was necessary 
in order to stamp out the disease to kill horses afflicted with it. The Federal 
Government agreed to pay one-half the appraised value of all horses killed by 
order of the Federal or state veterinaries, if the government of the state promised 
to recommend to the State Legislature to appropriate a sufficient sum to pay the 
other half. Governor Hanna agreed to this arrangement with the Federal Gov- 
ernment, and upon his recommendation the Legislature appropriated enough to 
pay half of the amount of the claims presented for horses killed. All claims have 
been fully satisfied. The epidemic was checked and apparently stamped out. 

LAWS 

An inheritance tax was enacted during his administration, which, it was 
expected, would yield an amount annually equal to one-half of the loss of fees 
from oil inspection. 

The law providing for uniform text books in public schools of the state will 
save a large sum annually to the patrons of the schools, as will the law- reducing 
the legal rate of interest to 6 per cent and the contract rate to 10 per cent. 

The law authorizing state banks to become members of the Federal Reserve 
system will also benefit the people. The state banks can always obtain a supply 
of money to move the crops in the fall and at better rates than formerly. 

In remembrance of the fact that the "poor are always with us" the Legis- 



440 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

lature enacted "a mother's pension law," whereby mothers with dependent chil- 
dren and without means to support them can receive a monthly pension from 
the county of their residence. 

The establishment of a state sanitarium for the treatment and care of tuber- 
culosis was a feature of the Hanna administration. It is located at the foot of 
the Turtle Mountains and is open to all residents who are victims of that dread 
disease, without charge. 

The law empowering the Board of Railroad Commissioners to regulate the 
rates for water, gas and electric light companies and placing telephone companies 
under their control will relieve portions of the state from further excessive 
charges and will equalize and make uniform the charges for service throughout 
the state 

TEMPERANCE 

The prohibition law of 1889 during this administration was further 
strengthened by a provision defining "boot legging" and making it a crime pun- 
ishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary, legalizing inspection by state's attor- 
neys and others of the records and way bills of freight and express companies, 
relating to intoxicating liquors, prescribing penalties for receiving or receipting 
for intoxicating liquors in fictitious names and declaring places where parapher- 
nalia was used for purposes of gambling, public nuisances, which could be closed 
by injunction, the paraphernalia confiscated and destroyed upon the conviction of 
the keeper of the place. 

The first attempt of any state to test the efficacy of the provisions of the 
Federal Webb-Kenyon Law to prevent the importation into the state of intoxi- 
cating liquors by common carriers was made in the Hanna regime. Henry J. 
Linde, attorney-general of the state, instituted actions in the state courts to 
enjoin the Northern Pacific, Great Northern and the Soo railroads from receiv- 
ing for transportation or delivery, intoxicating liquors consigned to any resident 
of the state. The state courts issued temporary restraining orders against each 
of these companies. The companies afifected transferred the suits to the Federal 
Court, but stipulated that the temporary injunction should remain in full force 
pending the final determination of the actions. One case has been tried before 
Judge Amidon, the Federal district judge and submitted. When he renders a 
final judgment it is probable an appeal will be taken therefrom to the Supreme 
Court of the United States. If the law is upheld by that court, the shipment of 
intoxicating liquors in unusual quantities will stop. The source of supply being 
cut off, blind pigs or unlawful places for the sale of liquor can not operate and 
the sale of intoxicating liquors to be drunk as a beverage will cease. 

WOMAN SUFFRAGE 

The question of extending sufifrage to the women of the state was submitted 
to the people at the general election in November, 1914, and was defeated. Since 
statehood, women have had the privilege of voting for all school offices and were 
eligible to hold school offices. Two have been elected to the office of state super- 
intendent of public instruction, viz.: Mrs. Laura J. Eisenhuth and Miss Emma 




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EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 441 

Bates. Both discharged the duties ably and creditably. One-third of the coun- 
ties, including the most populous ones, have elected women as county superin- 
tendents of schools and almost every district has one or more women as school 
officers. It is worthy of note that in territorial days before the division of the 
Dakota, the Legislature of 1885 passed a bill conferring full suffrage upon 
women. But Gilbert A. Pierce, then governor of the territory, vetoed it. To 
Di'. Cora Smith King, now living at Washington, D. C, and who was then 
Miss Cora Smith, of Grand Forks, belongs the credit of persuading the Legis- 
lature to pass this law. The curtain has not yet been "rung down" on this sub- 
ject. The advocates of suffrage are still campaigning and expect to carry the 
state when it is again submitted to a vote of the people. 

THE soldiers' HOME AT LISBON 

The home is maintained without cost to the state from, the revenue derived 
from the land grant of 40,000 acres by the government. Out of the funds they 
spent $13,000 to take 165 of the veterans to the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle 
of Gettysburg, the superintendent having charge of the trip, all veterans residing 
in the state being entitled to railroad fare and expenses of the trip. 

The institution also takes care of the expenses of the Grand Army of the 
Republic, the state spending $1,500 a year for this purpose. 

The bill creating the home was signed Februar}' 27th, 1891, 12 o'clock noon, 
in the presence of Hon. M. L. Engle, deceased; Hon. H. S. Oliver, deceased; 
Hon. L. C. Hill, deceased ; A. H. Laughlin, the legislative committee. The bill 
was signed by Governor Andrew H. Burke and was known as Senate Bill No. 60. 

The home opened on August ist, 1893. with Col. W. W. Mcllvain, com- 
mandant who served ten years and resigned on April ist, 1903. He was suc- 
ceeded by Col. John W. Carroll, a veteran of the regular army, seeing service 
in the Civil war. 

The home was originally built to accommodate thirty men, but has been en- 
larged and extended to double its capacity. The grounds cover eighty-five acres 
and is one of the beauty spots of the state. It is located on the Sheyenne River, 
one mile from the center of Lisbon, in a grove of native trees. The spot is a 
delight to the eye.. 

The original land was homesteaded by Henry Cramer and was bought from 
his widow, Caroline Cramer. Eighty acres bought and five acres later added. 

NORTH DAKOT.\ IN CONGRESS 

Lyman R. Casey, a senator from North Dakota ; born in York, Living- 
ston County, N. Y., May 6, 1837; when very young moved with his parents to 
Ypsilanti, Mich. ; in the hardware business for many years ; settled in Dakota in 
1882, at Carrington, Foster County; chairman of the North Dakota Committee on 
Irrigation; commissioner of Foster County; elected as a republican to the United 
States Senate and served from November 25. 1889, to March 3, 1893; located in 
New York City. 

Gilbert A. Pierce, a senator from North Dakota ; born in East Otto, Cattaragus 
County, N. Y. ; moved to Indiana in 1854; attended the University of Chicago 



442 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Law School two years; enlisted in Company H, Ninth Indiana Volunteers, in 
1861, and elected second lieutenant of the company; appointed captain and assist- 
ant quartermaster by President Lincoln ; promoted to lieutenant colonel in Novem- 
ber, 1863; appointed a colonel and inspector, and special commissioner of the war 
department, and served until October, 1865 ; member of the Indiana Legislature 
in 1868; assistant financial clerk of the United States Senate, 1869-1871 ; resigned 
to accept an editorial position on the Chicago Inter-Ocean; served as associate 
editor and managing editor for twelve years ; became connected with the Chicago 
News in 1883; appointed 'governor of Dakota in July, 1884; resigned in Novem- 
ber, 1886; elected as a republican to the United States Senate, and served from 
November 21, 1889, to March 3, 189 1 ; died in Chicago, 111., February 15, 1901. 

Henry C. Hansbrough, a representative and a senator from North Dakota ; 
born in Randolph County, 111., January 30, 1848; attended the common schools; 
learned the art of printing and engaged in newspaper publishing in California, 
Wisconsin, and Dakota Territory; became a resident of the last named in 1881 ; 
twice elected mayor of Devils Lake; delegate to the Republican National Conven- 
tion in 1888; national committeeman for eight years; elected as a republican, upon 
the admission of the State of North Dakota into the Union, to the Fifty-first Con- 
gress and served from December 2, 1889, until March 3, 1891 ; elected to the 
United States Senate, January 23, 1891 ; re-elected in 1897 and 1903, and served 
from March 4, 1891, until March 3, 1909; resident of Devils Lake, N. D. 

Martin N. Johnson, a representative and a senator from North Dakota ; born 
in Racine County, Wis., March 3, 1850; moved with parents to Iowa the same 
year; was graduated from the law department of the Iowa State University in 
1873 ; taught two years in the California Military Academy in Oakland. Cal. ; was 
admitted to the bar in 1876; returned to Iowa, and was a member of the State 
House of Representatives in 1877; state senator, 1878-1882; Hayes elector for 
the Dubuque District in 1876; moved to Dakota Territory in 1882; district 
attorney of Nelson County in 1886 and 1888; member of the Constitutional Con- 
vention of North Dakota in 1889, and chairman of the First Republican State Con- 
vention same year; elected as a republican to the Fifty-second, and to the three 
succeeding congresses (March 4, 1891-March 3, 1899); elected to the United 
States Senate, and served from March 4, 1909, until his death in Fargo, N. D., 
October 21, 1909. 

William N. Roach, a senator from North Dakota ; born in Loudoun County, 
Va., September 25, 1840; attended the city schools and Georgetown College; clerk 
in the quartermaster's department during the Civil war ; moved to Dakota Terri- 
tory in 1879; interested in mail contracts for several years; took up land in 
Dakota and engaged in agriculture; mayor of Larimore, 1883-1887; member of 
the Territorial Legislature, session of 1885; democratic candidate for governor 
at the first state election and defeated ; renominated at the next election and again 
defeated ; elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1893, 
to March 3, 1899; moved to New York City, where he died September 7, 1902. 

Porter J. McCumber, a senator from North Dakota ; born in Illinois, February 
3, 1858; moved to Rochester, Minn., the same year; attended the common schools; 
taught school for a few years ; was graduated from the University of Michigan in 
1880; moved to Wahpeton. N. D.. in 1881, and practiced his profession; mem- 
ber of the Territorial Legislature in 1S85 and 1887; attorney-general 1887-1888; 





Copyright by Harris iV Ewiny 

Sen. Asle J. Groniia 



Copyright by Harris & Ewiiig 

Patiiek D. Norton, M. C. Third District 




Copyriylit tiy Harris & Ewiiig 

Sen. Porter J. McCumber 





Copyright by Harris & Ewiiig 

George M. Young, M. C. Second District 

SENATORS AND REl'RESENTATIVES OF NORTH DAKOTA 



r.jpj'iiglit by Cliiiediiist 

John j\r. Baer, M. C. First District 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 443 

elected as a republican to the United States Senate January 20, 1899, for the term 
commencing March 4, 1899 ; re-elected in 1905, and served from March 4, 1899, 
to March 3, 191 1. Re-elected for the term commencing March 4, 191 1. 

Burleigh F. Spalding, a representative from North Dakota; born in Crafts- 
bury, Orleans County, Vt., December 3, 1853; attended the Lyndon Literary 
Institute, Lyndon, Vt., and was graduated from Norwich University in 1877 ; 
studied law in Montpelier, Vt., and was admitted to the bar in March, 1880, and 
commenced practice in Fargo, N. D. ; superintendent of public instruction of 
Cass County, Dakota Territory, from 1882 to 1884; member of commission to 
relocate capital of the Territory of Dakota and build capitol; member of the 
North Dakota Constitutional Convention in 1889; member of the joint commis- 
sion provided by the Enabling Act to divide the property and archives of the 
Territory of Dakota between the states of North and South Dakota ; twice elected 
chairman of the Republican State Central Committee; chairman of the Cass 
County Republican Committee ; elected as a republican to the Fifty-sixth Con- 
gress (March 4, 1899-March 3, 1901) ; re-elected to the Fifty-eighth Congress 
(March 4, 1903-March 3, 1905) ; associate justice of the Supreme Court of North 
Dakota in 1907 ; re-elected in 1908 ; chief justice of the State Supreme Court in 
1911. 

Thomas Frank Marshall, a representative from North Dakota ; born in 
Hannibal, Mo., March 7, 1854; attended the State Normal School, Platteville, 
Grant County, Wis. ; became a surveyor : moved to Dakota in 1873 and engaged 
in banking ; mayor of Oakes, N. D., for two terms ; state senator four years ; 
delegate in the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis in 1892; elected 
as a republican to the Fifty-seventh, Fifty-eighth, Fifty-ninth, and Sixtieth 
congresses (March 4, 1901-March 3, 1909). 

.\sle J. Gronna, a representative and a senator from North Dakota ; born in 
Elkader, Clayton County, Iowa, December 10, 1858; moved with his parents to 
Houston County, Minn., where he attended the public schools and the Caledonia 
Academy; taught school for two years in Wilmington, Minn.; moved to Dakota 
Territory in 1879, and engaged in farming and teaching; in 1880 moved to Bux- 
ton, Traill County, and engaged in business ; moved to Lakota, Nelson County, 
in 1887; member of the Territorial Legislature of 1889; served as president of 
the village board of trustees and president of the board of education several 
terms ; in 1902 became chairman of the County Central Committee of Nelson 
County, and was re-elected to the position in 1904; appointed a member of the 
Board of Regents of the University of North Dakota by Governor Frank White 
in 1902; elected as a republican to the Fifty-ninth, Sixtieth, and Sixty-first 
congresses and served from March 4, 1905, until February 2, 191 1, when he 
resigned ; elected to the United States Senate, to fill vacancy caused by death of 
Martin X. Johnson, succeeding the appointments of Senators Thompson and 
Pnrcell, for the term ending March 3, IQ15. and took his seat Februarv 2, 191 1. 
Re-elected. 

Fountain L. Thompson, a senator from North Dakota ; born near Scottsville, 
111., November 18, 1854: moved to Girard, 111., in 1865, where he resided until 
1S88; attended grammar and high schools in Girard. 111. ; studied law, was admit- 
ted to the bar, but did not practice ; member of the Board of Supervisors of 
Macoupin County ; entered mercantile business in 1872 ; moved to a farm near 



U-i EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Cando, Towner County, N. D., in 1888; delegate in the first democratic county 
convention that assembled after statehood, and was chosen chairman; county 
judge for eight years; in 1891 he engaged in the real estate and loan business in 
Cando, and later established the Thompson Realty Company, of which com- 
pany he was president ; vice president of the First National Bank of Cando, and 
president of the First National Bank of Rocklake ; interested in farming; school 
director six years, alderman of Cando four years, and mayor two years; appointed 
as a democrat United States senator to fill vacancy caused by the death of 
Martin N. Johnson and served from November 10, 1909, to January 31, 1910, 
when he resigned, and William E. Purcell was appointed in his place to fill the 
unexpired term, serving until the election of Asle J. Gronna, February i, 191 1. 

William E. Purcell, a senator from North Dakota ; born in Flemington, N. J., 
August 3, 1856; attended common schools; studied law, was admitted to the bar 
of New Jersey in 1880; went to Dakota Territory in July, 1881 ; located in 
Wahpeton, was appointed by President Cleveland United States attorney for 
the Territory of Dakota, April 5, 1888; resigned in May, 1889, having been 
elected a member of the constitutional convention for the new State of North 
Dakota ; was a member of the joint committee appointed by the Constitutional 
Convention of North Dakota to divide the property and adjust the indebtedness 
between the states of North and South Dakota ; district attorney of Richland 
County, N. D., from October, 1889, to January i, 1891 ; elected state senator 
in November, 1906; appointed United States senator January 29, 1910, to fill 
the vacancy in term commencing March 4, 1909, caused by the death of Martin 
N. Johnson and the resignation of Fountain L. Thompson, and served from 
February i, 1910 to February i 191 1; resumed the practice of law in Wahpeton, 
N. D. 

Louis B. Hanna, a representative from North Dakota ; born in New Brighton, 
Pa., August 9, 1861 ; attended schools of Ohio, Massachusetts, and New York; 
moved to North Dakota in 1881 ; member of the House in the State Legislature 
1895-1901 ; member of the State Senate 1905-1909; elected as a republican to 
the Sixty-first Congress (March 4, 1909-March 3, 191 1). Re-elected to the 
Sixty-second Congress. 

Henry T. Helgesen, republican, of Milton, was born on a farm near Decorah, 
Winneshiek County, Iowa ; received his education in the public schools and the 
Normal Institute and Business College of Decorah ; after graduating entered the 
mercantile business in Decorah, continuing there until 1887, when he moved to 
the Territory of Dakota, locating at Milton, Cavalier County, engaging in the 
hardware, furniture and lumber business, retiring in 1906 and devoting his time 
to his farm lands; he was married in 1880 to Bessie H. Nelson, of Decorah, and 
has a family of three boys and four girls; became actively interested in local 
and state politics soon after locating in Dakota, and was the first commissioner 
of agriculture and labor of the new State of North Dakota, and was re-elected to 
the same office in 1890; has served ten years as member of the University Board of 
Regents ; nearly twenty years ago he began a fight for cleaner politics in the 
state, and early became a leader in the progressive movement; was elected as 
congressman at large in 1910, and on the reorganization of congressional districts 
in the state in 1912 was elected as congressman from the First District in 1912 
and re-elected in 1914. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 445 

George M. Young, republican, Valley City, N. D. ; great-grandparents 
came from Ireland to United States a little over a century ago, settling at Oak 
Point, St. Lawrence County, N. Y., and the next generation moved to Ontario, 
where the subject of this sketch was born, December ii, 1870, at Lakelet, Huron 
County; during boyhood he and his widowed mother went to St. Charles, Mich., 
where he was educated in the public and high schools and later graduated from the 
University of Minnesota; settled at Casselton, N. D., in 1890, and at Valley City 
in 1894; married Augusta L. Freeman, St. Charles,, Mich., and has one child, 
Katherine Adams, six years old ; served in the State Legislature eight years ; 
elected to Sixty-third Congress ; re-elected to Sixty-fourth Congress, receiving 
18,559 votes, to 6,938 for J. J- Weeks, democrat, and 1.524 for N. J. Bjornstad, 
socialist. 

Patrick D. Norton, republican, of Hettinger, was born at Ishpeming, Mar- 
quette County, Mich., May 17, 1876; moved to Ramsey County, N. D., with 
his parents in 1883; educated in the common schools and State University of 
North Dakota ; graduated from University of North Dakota in 1897 with degree 
of B. A. ; studied law at the State University and was admitted to practice in 
1903 ; is engaged in the active practice of law and is also interested in banking, 
real estate business, and live-stock raising, has been elected to the following 
offices : county superintendent of schools, chief clerk of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, states attorney, and secretary of state; since taking part in political 
affairs has been recognized as one of the most active leaders of the progressive 
republican movement in North Dakota ; was nominated at the state-wide primary 
in June, 1910, as the candidate of the progressive republican organization for 
secretary of state and was elected in November of that year by a plurality of 
more than thirty thousand; in the primaries in June, 1912, he won the republi- 
can nomination for Congress after a most exciting campaign, in which four 
other prominent republican candidates participated; was elected to the Sixty-third 
Congress by a large majority over his democratic and socialist opponents, and 
was re-elected to the Sixty-fourth Congress. 



CHAPTER XXVII 
THE CODES OF NORTH DAKOTA 

TRUE RELATION TO THE CALIFORNIA CODES — THE FIELD CODES FIRST ADOPTED IN 
DAKOTA TERRITORY — THE SUCCESSIVE REVISIONS AND COMPILATIONS 

In 1873 Peter C. Shannon and Alphonzo H. Barnes were associate justices 
of the Dakota bench. Chief Justice Geo. W. French had held the first term 
of court in 1871, in what afterward became North Dakota, and a second term in 
1872. Chief Justice Shannon, who had succeeded Judge French, held terms of 
court at Pembina in June and September, 1873. Judge Barnes succeeded Judge 
Shannon in the Northern Dakota district in 1874, Shannon returning to the 
Yankton district. 

Judge Shannon, about this time, prepared the Criminal Code adopted by the 
Dakota Legislature of 1875, ^"d took a leading part in the codification of the 
laws under the act of 1875, adopted in 1877. Judge Shannon was learned in 
the law and in every way adapted to the work assigned him. He was most ably 
assisted by Hon. Bartlett Tripp and Granville G. Bennett. 

No better statement of the origin of the codes can be presented than that 
written by Judge Shannon, in a letter to the writer hereof in 1895. He was 
then residing at Canton, S. D., with his mental powers as alert as in his younger 
days, and his health unbroken. He wrote : 

"It is erroneous and gravely misleading to say that our codes were taken 
bodily from California, as serious results might spring from this notion. A few 
facts will overthrow it. 

"The authors of the codes, comprising such eminent jurists as Field, Sherman, 
Bradford, Graham and Noyes, after years of labor, made their final report of 
the civil code to the New York Legislature in February, 1865, and within a 
year thereafter the Legislature of Dakota adopted it. Rejected there, it found 
a home and was welcomed here. California followed our lead six years later. 

"The first draft of the penal code was laid before the Legislature in 1864, 
and in the following January it was enacted here. California, imitating our 
example, adopted it in 1872. 

"Our civil procedure of 1867 was not borrowed from California, but was 
extracted from the New York original of 1849, the parent of most of our modern 
codes on the subject. 

"Our criminal procedure as it now .stands was prepared to suit existing terri- 
torial conditions by this writer in 1874. and was passed in January, 1875. It was 
mainly framed from the New York originals. 

"Thus, historically, the first honor and the just praise belong to Dakota. We 

446 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 447 

did not take our codes from California. Our old territorial assemblies in this 
regard built well and wisely, whether they were aware of it or not, and laid 
broad and deep the foundations of perhaps the best system of jurisprudence 
extant. To them be always given due credit; and it would be well for future 
legislatures, as also for the profession, to see to it that this admirable system 
be not marred or disjointed. 

"Without looking to California or seeking elsewhere, the truest and safest 
key to the meaning of our codes is to be found in the notes of their authors, 
appended to the sections. These not merely illustrate but justify the text." 

It is well said that Judge Shannon has good and just reason to congratulate 
himself upon his great work as Dakota's chief codifier. That code will always 
remain his monument. 

On the occasion of the death of David Dudley Field, Judge Shannon wrote the 
Sioux Falls Press : 

"The death of the foremost and most influential lawyer in the United States, 
and the most distinguished law reformer in the English speaking world, deserves, 
especially among the people of the two Dakotas, more than an ordinary or a 
passing r^otice. His name will always be solidly linked with the best institutions 
of these two states; for he was the inspiring genius and the greatest author of 
our admirable and beneficent codes. 

"When thirty-four years old he publicly began in New York his herculean 
work of legal reform, and within a few years bills were introduced in that 
Legislature incorporating his plans as to procedure in the courts. In 1847 he 
became chairman of the commission which inaugurated and carried out that 
plan of civil procedure which, adopted there, soon spread over many other states, 
and is the law here. 

"In 1857 he was chairman of the commission that codified the civil and penal 
laws — works which, completed in 1865, were not, however, adopted by that 
Legislature, but first of all became laws in Dakota in 1865-6. Thus we have the 
gratifying distinction that our territorial assembly was the very first Legislature 
in the world to adopt and put into operation these two magnificent codes. 

"From 1839 until his death — a period of fifty-five years — his mind and 
energies were constantly devoted to the one supreme object of improving the laws 
and simplifying legal proceedings in the courts. 

"His ideal and model was the code of Justinian, which for thirteen centuries 
has been considered as one of the noblest benefactions to the human race, as it 
was one of the greatest achievements of human genius. His studies early taught 
him that the Justinian code is, indeed, the chief source whence have been drawn 
most of the best principles and doctrines of boasted common law. And as the 
emperor, Justinian, in 528, appointed a commission of jurists to revise the laws 
and compile a code, incorporating in it all previous laws and codes, so Mr. Field 
applied to the Legislature for such a commission to revise and codify the laws 
of New York. Justinian took care to appoint on his commission the foremost 
lawyer of the empire, Tribonian. under whose skill and laborious superintendence 
and direction the Roman code was compiled in 534. taking its name, as usual, 
from the emperor who appointed the commission, rather than from the person 
who was its architect. And so with Napoleon and the French code. But the 



as EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

name of Tribonian is, notwithstanding, inseparably connected with this master- 
piece of jurisprudence. 

"And so Mr. Field, appointed on the modern commission, became the Tri- 
bonian, not onl}' in the codification of common law in both its civil and penal 
departments, but also of the laws of procedure and of the law of evidence. Not 
content with all this vast labor, in 1873, he issued his "Outlines of an International 
Code,' the purpose and thought of which is to cause arbitration to supersede war 
among nations in the settlement of all disputes between them. With advancing 
thought and experience among civilized people, the necessity of such a code 
becomes more and more apparent ; and it is to be hoped the time will speedily 
come when this capsheaf of the genius of Mr. Field shall be garnered into public 
utility over the world. Then all oppressed nations and groaning peoples will bless 
his memory. The seeds thus sowed by him have been germinating and will 
continue to grow, for already many of the best intellects of the world, attracted 
by his project, have given their approbation to it." 

Hon. Ernest W. Caldwell, who, with Charles H. Price, was the compiler of 
the laws of 1887, says these laws were "chiefly the product of the industry, literary 
skill and legal knowledge of Judge Shannon. As a life long student of law, as 
the leader of the commission which revised the codes, as chief justice of the 
Appellate Court before which these codes were first tested in litigation, and 
subsequently as attorney practicing thereunder, he is eminently well qualified to 
pass judgment upon the merits of the work which David Dudley Field has per- 
formed for the benefit of society through all the years to come." 

Commenting on the above. Judge Charles F. Amidon wrote in 1895, "Another 
reason for the quite general notion that North Dakota copies the civil code from 
California, grows out of the effect of the California code upon the revision of 
1877. The code as originally adopted in this state was almost an exact copy of 
the proposed draft of the civil code presented to the New York Legislature by 
the David Dudley Field Commission. There were many provisions in this orig- 
inal code which were not applicable to a western system of laws. In 1870 a 
commission was appointed in California to undertake a revision of the codes as 
presented in New York, so to bring them down to date, and also to so modify 
them as to make them applicable to a western community. This revision was 
carried forward with great thoroughness in California, by a commission com- 
posed of the ablest lawyers on the Pacific Slope, and the code as thus revised 
was adopted by California in 1872. The commission which was appointed in 
the Territory of Dakota under the laws of 1875, to revise the codes here, availed 
itself very largely of the work of the California commission, and most of the 
changes which were made in the revision of 1877 were borrowed from California. 

COMPILED L.\WS OF 1887 

The Seventeenth Territorial Legislature in 1887 provided for a legalized com- 
pilation of the laws of the territory by passing a law empowering the governor 
of the territory, by and with the consent of the Council to appoint a compiler and 
assistant compiler of the laws. E. W. Caldwell and Charles H. Price were 
selected and appointed by the governor as the commission. This law conferred 
no power to revise the statutes, to reconcile contradictions, to correct incon- 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 449 

sistencies, or to supply omissions found in existing laws, but all such contra- 
dictions, inconsistencies and omissions were to be reported to the Legislature 
for their information and action. 

The compilers reported to the Eighteenth Territorial Legislature, which as- 
sembled at Bismarck in January, 1889, but this Legislature evinced no disposition 
to consider the report, or correct any inaccuracies or inconsistencies in the laws. 
The National Congress had passed and President Cleveland had on the 22d day 
of February, 1889, signed the so-called "Omnibus Bill," which, among other 
things, provided for the division of Dakota and the separation of the area em- 
braced in the boundaries of Dakota, into two states or territories, as the people 
living in the respective sections should by vote determine. 

This commission compiled and classified all the general laws in force at the 
close of the Seventeenth Legislative session. This included the seven codes of 
the revision of 1877. but changed the arrangement of the chapters and numbered 
the sections consecutively, so that reference would be made thereto by the lawyers 
and courts as sections of the Compiled Laws of 1887, instead of sections of the 
civil, penal or other codes, as the case might be, and was of material advantage 
not only to the profession and courts, but to the officers of both the territorial 
and state governments. This compilation together with the session laws of 1890, 
1891, 1893 and 1895 was the legalized and official compilation of the laws gov- 
erning the state until the adoption of the revision of 1895. 

Judge Amidon, continuing, said: "It was not until after the revision of 
1887 that the codes became familiar to the profession in the Territory of Dakota. 
The code, never having been adopted in New York, never received any con- 
struction from the courts of that state, and it was natural, therefore, for the 
profession to look to California as the origin of the code, it having been adopted 
there, and many decisions having been rendered by the Supreme Court of Cali- 
fornia construing its provisions. 

"What is true of the civil code is also true of other codes of the state. The 
commission of 1877 borrowed most largely from the codes of California. There 
was great advantage in this course, for it gave to the courts of this state the 
advantage of the construction of the very able court which then existed in 
California. No revision was attempted in North Dakota after 1877. Our present 
compiled laws are very aptly named. It was simply a compilation of the laws 
in force in 1887. The compilers had no power to make changes in existing law, 
or to propose amendments thereto. 

"Nearly twenty years, therefore have elapsed, since the laws of this state 
have been revised. This was a period of great growth in statutory law. The 
original codes had been adopted in many other states, and at each adoption had 
been subjected to a thorough revision. During the same period a vast body of 
session laws had grown. This is especially true since the adoption of the con- 
stitution, much new legislation being required to carry the provisions of the 
constitution into efifect. These laws, however, were framed and passed in a 
fragmentary manner to meet particular emergencies and were in many of their 
provisions irreconcilably conflicting. There was great need of a thorough re- 
vision which would bring the existing law into harmony and supply the deficien- 
cies which would be manifest to a commission undertaking such work." 

When Dakota was divided in 1889. the laws of Dakota Territory were 



450 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

spread over the states of North and South Dakota, and it remained that they be 
adapted to the constitution of the states, as appeared to be necessary. 

The necessity of adapting these laws to the constitution of the state by 
eliminating provisions either conflicting therewith, or made obsolete, or repealed 
liy any articles thereof, was recognized by the people of the state, and accordingly 
the Second State Legislature, which assembled in January, 1891, after reciting 
in the preamble to chapter 82 of the Session Laws of 1891, that there had been 
no legalized compilation of the laws of the state; that the laws passed at the 
several sessions of the Territorial Legislature, and of the State of North Dakota, 
were confused and inconsistent, and did not conform to the constitution of the 
state, and therefore it was a work of great labor and difficulty to ascertain what 
the law really was on many subjects, enacted a law providing for the appointment 
by the governor of a commission of three persons to compile, arrange, classify 
and report the laws of this state, which may be in force on the first day of July, 
A. D. 1891. 

Governor Andrew H. Burke, selected and appointed as such commission, 
Robert M. Pollock, of Cass County, Patrick H. Rourke, of Ransom County, and 
John G. Hamilton, of Grand Forks County. This commission met at Bismarck 
soon after the adjournment of the Legislature, and organized by the selection of 
John G. Hamilton as chairman, and John F. Philbrick, of Bismarck, as secretary. 
The commission prepared a very complete report, showing the various inaccu- 
racies, contradictions and inconsistencies found in existing laws, and recom- 
mended the correction of these by the Legislature, and the publishing of their 
compilation when so corrected, but this Legislature had consumed forty-five days 
of a session Hmited to sixty days, in a bitter struggle to harmonize its conflicting 
elements and elect a United States senator, consequently the only consideration 
given the report was to refer it to another commission, upon whom was conferred 
the power to revise and codify the laws. Judge Charles F. Amidon, who was 
chairman of the commission of 1893, speaking of this compilation says:' 

"This commission appears to have done faithful work, making an exhaustive 
report to the Legislature of 1893, which, however, owing to the prolonged sena- 
torial controversy, paid little attention to their report. Their powers, however, 
were limited to compilation and classification, though they secured the introduc- 
tion of a large number of bills revising, many of which became laws and were 
useful to the new commission, which was given authority to revise, as well as 
classify, codify and compile. In fact the new commission was a revision, rather 
than a compilation commission. The act of 1893 creating the commission gave 
them power to reject all obsolete and conflicting provisions, and report any new 
laws necessary to complete the codes which already existed. The law provided 
tliat this commission should be appointed by the governor upon the recommenda- 
tion of the judges of the Supreme Court. Governor Eli C. Shortridge appointed 
for this work George W. Newton, of Bismarck, Burke Corbet, of Grand Forks, 
and Charles F. Amidon. of Fargo, these persons having been recommended by 
the Supreme Court. The commission entered upon its work and carried it 
forward with such energy that when the Legislature met in January, 1895, the 
commission had ready to report to it a complete system of codes. These codes 
received the highest commendation of all members of the Legislature, and all 
were adopted in the main as reported, although several important amendment' 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 451 

were made by the Legislature, in which all members of the commission did not 
concur." 

Two of the members of the old commission were in position to render im- 
portant work in the final adoption of the codes. Hon. Patrick H. Rourke was a 
member of the Senate and one of the Senate judiciary committee and of the 
joint compilation committee, and on both did excellent service. Maj. John G. 
Hamilton was clerk of the joint committee and after the adjournment of the 
Legislature was employed to assist Hon. Burke Corbet on the political codes and 
in the indexing. The new code took effect July i, 1895. Judge Charles J. Fisk, 
of Grand Forks, a most notable lawyer, was secretary of the commission which 
prepared the codes of 1905. 

1895 COMMISSION 

This commission reported to the Fourth Legislative Assembly in January, 
1895. It embodied its work in seven bills, each bill covering one of the seven 
codes. The Legislature created a special joint committee of the House and 
Senate and referred these seven bills to this committee. The committee examined 
each bill carefully and critically, it made few amendments to any of the codes, 
and such as they recommended did not contain any material changes. The 
Legislative Assembly separately considered each code as reported by the joint 
committee, and enacted each code .substantial!}' as compiled by the commission, 
excepting the political code, wherein was inserted an entirely new revenue law, 
as well as other amendments. The commission did not approve of some of these 
changes and disclaimed responsibility for their authorship or enactment. Owing 
to the meagerness of the appropriation for printing by the state, the edition of 
the 1895 code was a small one and was soon exhausted. To supply the demand 
for the codes from lawyers and the various municipalities, the Legislature on the 
21st day of February, 1899, enacted a statute authorizing the revision of the 
Revised Codes of 1895 to be known as the Revised Codes of 1899. This revision 
was to be made under the general supervision of the secretary of state, the Hon. 
Edward F. Porter, but was restricted, however, to the elimination of such chap- 
ters, articles or sections of the Codes of 1895 as were repealed by the Legislature 
of 1897 and 1899, to the substitution and incorporation of all amendments with- 
out modification, to the renumbering of the sections, chapters and articles when 
necessary to harmonize the statutes, to the re-arrangement of the table of con- 
tents, and to the re-indexing. It was in substance to be a compilation, rather 
than a revision of the existing laws. The secretary was empowered to employ 
experts in compiling and digesting, and other help deemed necessary to facilitate 
the work of publishing, and selected Reuben N. Stevens, a lawyer of Bismarck, 
Marshall H. Jewell, editor of the Bismarck Tribune, assisted by John G. Hamilton, 
of Grand Forks, to compile, codify and publish the edition of 1899. This edition 
being in turn exhausted, the Ninth Legislative Session in 1905 authorized an- 
other codification to be known as the Revised Codes of 1905. This was to be 
prepared under the general supervision of the governor, Elmore Y. Sarles, and 
secretary of state, Edward F. Porter, and in its general arrangement was to 
follow the compilation of the 1899 code, with the additional feature that it 
should contain annotations of the decisions of the Supreme courts of the Terri- 



452 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

tory of Dakota, and the states of North and South Dakota, arranged by Appro- 
priate reference to sections construed or appHed by these courts. All the decisions 
contained in the Territorial Reports and thirteen volumes of the North Dakota 
Reports, and seventeen volumes of the South Dakota Reports are annotated 
and incorporated in the compilation of 1905. The contract for the codification, 
annotation and publication of this compilation was awarded to Marshal H. Jewel, 
of Bismarck, who associated with himself Reuben N. Stevens, a lawyer of 
Bismarck, John G. Hamilton, a lawyer of Grand Forks, and Robert D. Hoskins, 
of Bismarck, then and for many years clerk of the Supreme Court of North 
Dakota. 

COMPILED LAWS OF I913 

The period intervening between the publication of the Revision of 1905 and 
the Legislative Session of 1913, was prolific of statutes covering the subjects of 
irrigation, water rights, primary elections, initiative and referendum, board of 
control, management of the penal and charitable institutions, and a multitude of 
statutes putting into force and effect provisions of a progressive character, which 
had been enacted in compliance with the popular demand therefor. 

This fact, coupled with the exhaustion of the 1905 edition, induced the 
Thirteenth Legislative Assembly, in the year 19 13, to provide for the compila- 
tion of all general laws in force on the first day of July, 1913, by authorizing the 
secretary of state, Thomas Hall, to contract with the Lawyers Co-operative Pub- 
lishing Co., of Rochester, N. Y., to codify, annotate and publish a compiled 
edition of the laws of North Dakota in two volumes, which were to be 
furnished to the state, its residents and various municipalities at the rate of 
$15.00 for the two volumes. The contract made with this company required 
not only the codification and classification of all the laws, but their annotation 
by reference to decisions of all the state, and United States, to the American 
Decisions, American Reports, American State Reports. Lawyers Reports Anno- 
tated, and the North Dakota Reports. The company fulfilled its contract and 
has published two volumes with annotations from the reports herein before 
specified and has divided each code into chapters and sections, which sections are 
consecutively numbered from i to 11,438 inclusive, and the secretary of state 
has accepted these volumes as the official compilation of the laws of the state. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 



THE SUPREME COURT 



The constitution of the state, as submitted to the people and by them ratified, 
provides for a judicial system, consisting of supreme, district, county, and 
justice courts. 

Police magistrates were to be chosen in cities, incorporated towns and villages. 

The Svipreme Court was to consist of three members, elected for a term of 
six years each and to hold office until their successors were elected and qualified. 

An exception was made in the case of the judges elected at the first election 
under the constitution. 

They were to be classified by lot, so that one should hold his office for two 
years ; one for five years, and one for seven years. The lots were to be drawn 
by the judges themselves, and the result of the drawing certified to the secretary 
of state and filed in his office. 

By a unique provision — and one peculiar to North Dakota — no chief justice 
was to be elected by the people, but the judge having the shortest term to serve, 
not holding his office by appointment or election to fill a vacancy, should be the 
presiding judge of the court. 

By this arrangement every judge elected for the full term would become the 
presiding judge before the expiration of his term. 

This system prevailed until 1908, when, by constitutional amendment, the 
membership of the court was increased to five. 

On January 15, 1909, the then governor, John Burke, appointed John Car- 
niody of Hillsboro and S. E. Ellsworth of Jamestown as associate judges of the 
Supreme Court. 

At the general election in 19 10 three judges were elected for the full term 
of six years each. 

The qualifications prescribed by the constitution for a judge of the Supreme 
Court were: 

1. That he should be learned in the law, 

2. Should be at least thirty years old, 

3. Should be a citizen of the United States and shall have been a resident 
of the Territory of Dakota or of the state at least three years next preceding 
his election. 

The comprehensive term, "learned in the law," in its final analysis, means 
nothing more than that the candidate has been admitted to practice law in the 
courts of this or some other state. The presumption being that the admission 
to practice law, in the courts of this state, disclosed such a knowledge of the 
law as to place the candidate in the class of one "learned in the law." 

453 



,454 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

The first judges chosen at the election when the constitution was ratified by 
vote of the people in October, 1889, were Guy C. H. Corliss, of Grand Forks; 
Joseph M. Bartholomew, of La Moure, and Alfred Wallin, of Fargo. They 
were all elected for equal terms, and it became necessary then to determine by 
lot the length of term of service of each. 

For the purpose of organizing the court and determining by lot the length 
of the term of service of each, these three judges met at Bismarck, the seat of 
government, and drew lots. 

How the drawing was conducted was never made public, as the judges were 
•required by law merely to certify the result and file the same in the office of the 
secretary of state. The result so certified discloses that Mr. Corliss drew the 
short term of three years from the first Monday in December, A. D. 1889, and 
by virtue thereof became the presiding judge, or the first chief justice in the 
state; Mr. Bartholomew drew the five-year term, and Mr. Wallin, the oldest in 
years of the three, drew the seven-year term. 

At this same meeting a clerk and reporter of the court were appointed. 
R. D. Hoskins, of Bathgate, was appointed clerk in December, 1889, and has 
served continuously in that capacity since. Edgar W. Camp, of Jamestown, 
was at the same time appointed court reporter. 

The duties and emoluments of these officers were such as might be pre- 
scribed by law and the rules of the Supreme Court not inconsistent with the law. 

The clerk is the custodian of all the records of the court, viz. : briefs, plead- 
ings, files, including all papers used on appeal. 

He furnishes a syllabus of cases heard and decided to such daily newspapers 
of the state as care to publish them. 

The syllabus of all cases decided in the Supreme Court must be prepared 
by the judge thereof who writes the opinion in the particular case. 

Every point fairly arising on the record and essential to the proper deter- 
mination of the case, must be decided by the court, be embodied in the opinion 
and covered in the syllabus. 

In most appellate courts of the United States, including its Supreme Court, 
the syllabus of cases is prepared either by the clerk or the reporter, and it fre- 
quently happens that the syllabus and body of the opinion are at variance as to 
the questions determined, resulting from the failure of these officers to compre- 
hend the opinion or understand and express in the syllabus in clear, pertinent 
language the law of that case as decided by the court and as stated by the judge 
who wrote the opinion. 

The judge who writes the opinion knows what is decided in that particular 
case and is therefore properly equipped to prepare a correct syllabus. 

The framers of the constitution made no mistake when they incorporated in 
that document the provision that syllabi should be prepared by the judges, who 
would, of necessity, be familiar with the controverted questions decided and the 
reasons upon which their determination turned. 

The Supreme Court reporter prepares for publication, in books of not less 
than 530 pages, all decisions of the court, and includes in each case a brief state- 
ment of the points raised in the briefs of the appellant and respondent. 

The Reports of recent years, however, have been copiously annotated by 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 45.-) 

references to decisions of other courts wherein the same or kindred questions 
have been decided. 

The Supreme Court had no legal home from its organization until 1909. It 
was a "migratory" court. The constitution had prescribed that three terms of 
court should be held each year, "one at the seat of government, one at Fargo, 
and one in Grand Forks." This arrangement continued until the passage by 
the legislative assembly, in February, 1909, of an act providing for two general 
terms to be held at the "seat of government," to be known as the April and 
October terms. 

Special terms only may be held in cities other than Bismarck, the seat of 
government, upon twenty days' previous notice thereof in a newspaper pub- 
lished at the seat of government. 

These special terms may be held elsewhere, when, in the opinion of the 
court, the public interests require. 

Special terms have been held under this act in Grand Forks in June of each 
year, to receive the report of the State Bar Examining Board for the admission 
to practice law in this state of such persons as they found qualified and recom- 
mended. Special terms have also been held in Fargo for this same purpose. 

All appeals from county courts with increased jurisdiction, or district courts, 
are heard and determined at Bismarck. 

The constitution makes no provision for the appointment or election of a 
marshal or other officer for the service of any process issued by this court, or 
for attendance upon the court during its sessions. Accordingly, in 1890, the 
Legislative Assembly by act provided that the sheriffs of Burleigh, Cass and 
Grand Forks counties should act as marshals of the court when in session at 
their respective counties. These marshals were entitled to charge and receive 
the same fees and mileage for the service of process or other papers directed 
by the court to be served, and the same compensation for attendance upon the 
court, as is allowed by law to sheriffs ; such fees, however, to be paid out of the 
state treasury, as other state expenses are paid. 

The court was authorized to appoint the librarian of the law library to act as 
bailiff of the court, his duties to be prescribed by the court. The librarian, how- 
ever, receives no additional compensation for any services he may render to the 
court. It is noteworthy here that the court has no librarian of its own, as the 
library remains, as in territorial days, in the custody of the secretary of state. 
The judges select the books to be purchased, but they are bought by the secretary 
of state out of any appropriation made therefor by the Legislative Assembly. 
The Assembly deserves criticism for failure to provide the court with its own 
librarian and in compelling it to use the librarian as a bailiff. 

The judges are, to use the epigrammatic language of a citizen of Bismarck 
who investigated the matter when the proposition to increase the court member- 
ship to five was under consideration : "Worked like horses in harvest ! They 
work unremittingly to keep up the calendar and avoid the delay which is inci- 
dent to appellate practice." It is no eight-hour day with them. 

While the Legislative Assembly has appropriated for stenographers for the 
judges, it has not been as liberal or as generous as the needs of the court justify. 

The great increase in population and the large number of judicial districts 
in consequence thereof, together with giving the right of appeal direct from 



456 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

judgments and proceedings in county courts having increased jurisdiction, have 
added very materially to the number of appeals. 

Judges who work continuously under high pressure and the stimulus "to 
keep up the calendar" cannot in nature render the highest and best service. It 
requires intense research and investigation to find the very truth in conflicting 
propositions submitted for decision. To illustrate: It is not unusual for the 
Supreme Court of the United States to have cases under advisement for months 
and even years. Their calendar of cases as a rule is about three years behind. 
This is caused by the fact that while one judge is assigned to write the opinion 
all the other judges investigate the case, have a consultation day each week when 
the case is thoroughly examined, and not until the individual judges have mas- 
tered the case and reached a conclusion as to the law is it published as the deci- 
sion of the court. 

Consequently lawyers prize very highly the opinions of the Supreme Court. 
They are invaluable as a true exposition of the law. State supreme courts do 
not and can not give such time to the consideration of cases submitted. The 
result is a different interpretation of the law in many of the forty-eight state 
jurisdictions, and frequent reversions and modifications of opinion as the tem- 
perament and predilections of judges differ. 

LEGISLATION AFFECTING THE SUPREME COURT 

At the general election in November, 1908, a constitutional amendment, 
increasing the membership of the court to five and which had passed two suc- 
cessive legislative assemblies, was adopted by the people and became an integral 
part of the constitution, while another amendment fixing the tenure of office at 
ten years, upon a submission to a vote of the people, was defeated. 

The Legislative Assembly of 1909 provided for the office of chief justice and 
prescribed his duties. The judge of the Supreme Court having the shortest 
term to serve, not holding office by election or appointment to fill a vacancy, 
shall be chief justice and shall preside at all terms of the Supreme Court. If no 
member of the court is qualified for the office of chief justice under the fore- 
going provisions, then the judges of the Supreme Court shall select the chief 
justice. In the absence of the chief justice the judge having the next shortest 
term to serve, or a judge selected by the court, as the case may be, shall preside 
in his stead. This statute was necessary in view of the fact that when the mem- 
bership of the court was increased to five, three judges were elected for the 
term of six years each and took office at the same time. 

In the closing hours of the Legislative Assembly of 1909 there was enacted 
the non-partisan judiciary law. In brief it provides that in petitions or affidavits 
filed by or in behalf of candidates for nomination at primary elections for the 
office of judge of the Supreme or District Court, no reference shall be made to 
the party ballot or the party affiliation of such candidate. There shall be sepa- 
rate ballots containing the names of the candidates for the respective offices 
entitled "The Judiciary Ballot." The names shall appear without party designa- 
tion, and there shall be stated thereon the number of judges each elector is 
entitled to vote for. 

At the general election also there shall be a separate ballot known as the 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 457 

"Judiciary Ballot," upon which shall appear the names of all candidates nomi- 
nated at the primary election without party designation, but there shall be stated 
thereon the number of judges each elector is entitled to vote for. 

The constitution prescribed that Supreme Court judges should receive such 
compensation for their services as might be provided by law, but such compen- 
sation should not be increased or diminished during the term for which a judge 
shall have been elected. But in view of the fact that the early court was of a 
migratory character, because terms were held at three different cities, the Legis- 
lative Assembly, in 1907, by act provided that each judge of the Supreme Court 
should receive the sum of $500 each year for traveling expenses and moneys 
expended by him while absent from home and while engaged in the discharge 
of his official duties, without requiring any itemized statement. 

The annual compensation allowed to Supreme Court judges is $5,000. 

The annual compensation allowed to the clerk of court is $2,000. 

The annual compensation allowed to the reporter is $1,500. 

Since statehood there have been six court reporters : Edgar W. Camp, of 
Jamestown, who edited and reported volume i ; R. D. Hoskins, who edited and 
reported volume 2; John M. Cochrane, court reporter from June i, 1892, to 
January, 1902. He edited and reported volumes 3 to 10 inclusive; R. M. 
Carothers, who edited and reported volume 11. In March, 1909, the Legislative 
Assembly by law prescribed that the volumes of the Supreme Court reports 
should contain not less than 650 pages, exclusive of the table of cases and index, 
the pages to be 4J/2 inches in width and the volumes to be furnished the state and 
sold at $2.25 a volume. 

A true and correct matrix of each report to be delivered to the secretary 
of state to be preserved by the secretary as a part of the records of his office. 

F. W. Ames, of Mayville, edited and reported volumes 12 to 21 inclusive, 
and H. A. Libby, of Grand Forks, volumes 22 to 32 inclusive. 

These are all the volumes issued up to September i, 1916. 

JURISDICTION OF THE SUPREME COURT 

Under the constitution of the state the Supreme Court has appellate juris- 
diction only, together with a general supervising control over all inferior courts. 
This control is restricted, however, by such regulations and limitations as may 
be prescribed by law. 

The constitution further empowered the Supreme Court to issue original 
writs of injunction, mandamus, quo warranto, habeas corpus, and such other 
remedial writs as may be necessary in the exercise of its jurisdiction. 

No jury can be allowed in the Supreme Court, but in proper cases where 
questions of fact must be settled before the court can finally decide the issues, 
it may certify such questions to a district court for determination. 

In the meantime the decision of the court is held in abeyance until the find- 
ings of fact by the District Court are transmitted by that court for the informa- 
tion and guidance of the Supreme Court in its exercise of its appellate and super- 
visory powers. 

The great prerogative writs of injunction, quo warranto and mandamus are 
the voice of the sovereign commanding to justice when ordinary judicial pro- 



458 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

ceedings afford no speedy or adequate remedy, hence, to warrant the issuance 
of such original writs by the Supreme Court the interest of the state must be 
primary and paramount. There must exist a contingency which requires the 
interposition of the court to preserve the prerogatives and franchises of the 
state and the Uberty of its citizens. 

In cases where this original jurisdiction is invoked the action proceeds in the 
name and upon the relation of the attorney general and he acts only upon leave 
first obtained from the court, which leave is based upon a showing that the 
case is one of which it is proper for the court to take cognizance, the court 
judging of each controversy for itself. 

The consent of the attorney general to an application for one of these original 
writs is not, however, an indispensable condition of its granting. It may issue 
upon the relation of a citizen presenting a petition showing prima facie that the 
attorney general is hostile to its issuance and that a peculiar exigency exists 
where the interests of the state at large are involved, or where its sovereign 
power has been violated or the liberty of its citizens endangered. 

A statement or showing that they are collaterally involved in any proceeding or 
action is not sufficient. The court will refuse the writ unless it manifestly appears 
that the interests of the state at large are directly menaced. 

The essence of appellate jurisdiction is, that it revises and corrects proceedings 
in a cause instituted and adjudicated in another tribunal, and, therefore, the court 
does not look with favor upon applications for original writs. 

It prefers to review them after they have been granted or refused in the in- 
ferior courts. It will not hesitate to issue them, however, if the exigency is great, 
the interests of the state imperiled or the liberties of its citizens endangered. 

The legislative assembly, by the enactment of the law for the trial of equity 
cases de novo in the Supreme Court, imposed a duty upon that court that is incon- 
sistent and conflicts with its appellate jurisdiction. 

The law, in effect, makes it a trial court. It does not provide for a review 
of erroneous rulings or the correction of mistakes of law in the inferior court, but 
requires the Supreme Court to wade through a voluminous record, containing 
usually a tangled mass of relevant and irrelevant testimony which the court below 
was powerless to exclude. The law is an innovation and not a reform or judicial 
procedure. It should be relegated to the "scrap heap" and equity cases be re- 
viewed the same as other cases. 

SUPREME COURT JUDGES 

Our first Supreme Court was one of great ability. Perhaps it would not be 
extravagant or beyond the bounds of truth to say it was one of superior ability. 

The frequent reference to their decisions, as clear interpretations of the law, 
found in the reports of other states, is proof of this. 

Judge Corliss was not only thoroughly versed in the principles and theory of 
the law, but possessed also high literary attainments. He was familiar with the 
literature of the past and abreast of that of the day. 

While occasionally in his opinions there is a tendency to display this knowledge 
in a fanciful and pedantic way. still, as a rule, he spoke with a logic that convinced 
and with a language that charmed. Judge Corliss resigned from the bench mainly 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 459 

because of the inadequacy of the compensation allowed to the judges. He formed 
a partnership with John M. Cochrane at Grand Forks and actively practiced law 
there until he located at Portland, Ore., some three years ago. 

Joseph M. Bartholemew of La Moure, was elected a judge of the Supreme 
Court in October, 1889, and in the drawing of lots to determine the tenure of 
office of the members of the first Supreme Court he drew the five-year term. He 
was elected for the full term of six years in November, 1894, and retired from 
the bench in December, 1900. Immediately upon his retirement he resumed the 
practice of his profession at Bismarck, and died suddenly of heart disease at his 
home on March 24, 1901. The judge was a native of Illinois, having been born 
at Clarksville in that state on the 17th day of June, 1843. When he was about 
two years old his parents moved to Lodi in the Stafe of Wisconsin, where he 
lived and received his early education until he arrived at the age of eighteen 
years when he entered the Wisconsin State University. He spent, however, but 
one year there, and when only nineteen years old enlisted in August, 1862, as a 
private in Company H, Twenty-third Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He was 
mustered out as a first lieutenant on November 14, 1865. He participated in the 
sieges of Vicksburg and Jackson, aided in capturing the forts at the mouth of 
Mobile Bay and fought in the battle of Chickasaw Bayou and Arkansas Post. 

After the war he studied law in the office of Senator Allison, at Dubuque, la., 
and was admitted to practice in that city in 1869. 

In 1883 he came to the Territory of Dakota, settling at La Moure where he 
continuously resided until his election in 1889 as one of the first judges of the 
Supreme Court of the State of North Dakota. When he was nominated for the 
Supreme bench he was comparatively unknown to the bar, and there was a fear 
among the members of the bar that he would not measure up to the requirements 
of the office, but that fear quickly disappeared when the court began to hear 
cases and render opinions. The opinions written by Judge Bartholemew show 
that he was a man of high intellectual attainment, with a profound knowledge and 
understanding of the great principles of natural justice and equity, which are really 
the foundation of all law, and that he was a man of original thought, of great 
learning and strong logical reasoning power. The opinions written by him while 
on the bench were a credit to himself, an honor to the court and to the state. 
They were always clear, concise, logical and convincing. 

The memorial presented to the Supreme Court as a tribute to his memory says : 
"As a judge he has left upon the records of this state in his judicial opinions so 
many witnesses to his ability, learning, sound judgment, powers of reasoning and 
discrimination, conscientious research and study, and abiding love of equity, 
that other commendation of his judicial work is rendered superfluous. Breadth 
and solidity ; mastery of legal and equitable principles ; close and cogent logic ; a 
beautiful, pure and clear style ; and fullness of legal learning are found there, 
not as we catch occasional and momentary glimpses of the uioon when the sky is 
overcast, but shining with a steady and unbroken radiance from every page of 
his judicial utterances. Is it a vain boast that we ask whether juridical history 
furnishes many judicial careers which in so short a time have achieved a more envi- 
able success? We believe that he will be known in after days as one of the great 
judges of the state. Patient in hearing; exhaustive in research; deliberate in 
maturing his conclusions ; without pride of opinion ; always receptive of new 



460 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

light; self reliant and yet appreciating the value of precedent; gracious in his 
demeanor with the bar and his brethren of the bench ; loved and respected by them 
all; far above even the suspicion of the possibility of any unworthy motive enter- 
ing to disturb the incorruptible discharge of his judicial duty; he may well be 
described, and he will long be remembered as, an ideal judge." 

Judge Alfred Wallin was a specialist in practice and procedure. His style of 
expression was at times stilted and ponderous, but was always luminous and cor- 
rectly stated the law. His published opinions stand as a monument to his research, 
learning and ability. 

Judge Guy C. H. Corliss was elected for the full term of six years commencing 
December, 1892. He resigned in 1898 and N. C. Young of Bathgate was appointed 
to serve the unexpired term, and was then elected for the term of six years, com- 
mencing in December, 1898, and was re-elected for the term commencing in 
December, 1904. He resigned the office in 1906 to become a member of the firm of 
Ball & Watson, general counsel for the Northern Pacific at Fargo. He has built 
up a large and lucrative private practice, in addition to that afforded as one of 
the attorneys for the Northern Pacific. Since leaving the bench he has 
interested himself in educational afifairs. He was a member of the board of edu- 
cation at Fargo for some years, and a trustee of the University of North Dakota, 
but resigned this position, as his business interests demanded all his time and 
energy. The lawyers universally regretted his resignation from the bench. He 
had impressed the profession as a man of strong mental and moral fibre, who 
possessed not only intellectual conscientiousness but "saving common sense," and 
whose aspirations and ambition were to serve faithfully his country by correctly 
expounding the law applicable to the cases heard in his court. Briefly he filled 
this high office with fidelity, credit and distinction. 

David E. Morgan of Devils Lake, served as judge of the Second Judicial 
District for the term of eleven years, covering the period' from the beginning of 
statehood until November, 1900, when he was elected to the Supreme bench. He 
was re-elected in 1906 and was a member of that court until the 31st day of 
October, 191 1, when, because of failing health, he deemed it his duty to the 
public and to the court to resign. He was the chief justice at the time of his 
resignation. In the hope that a change to the milder climate of California would 
restore his health he visited that state, but his recuperative powers were gone and 
he succumbed to the "Grim Visitor" and went to his final home May 11, 1912. 

Judge Morgan was born in Coalport. Ohio, on the eighth day of November. 
1849. His parents were natives of Wales. They moved to the State of Wisconsin 
when the judge was a child of tender years. His education was acquired in the 
public schools of that state, at Spring Green Academy, at the Platteville State Nor- 
mal School and at the Wisconsin State University, where he spent a year pursuing 
a special course. He was elected three times as clerk of the District Court of 
Sauk County, Wisconsin, and during this time he studied law with Judges Rem- 
ington and Barker at Baraboo, Wis. He was admitted to practice law in 
that state in 1879 and moved to Grand Forks in 1881 and was in partnership for 
a time with Arthur H. Noyes. When the Great Northern Railway extended its 
line to Devils Lake he moved there, in 1883 and formed a partnership with John 
F. McGee, who subsequently became a district judge in Minneapolis, Minn. He 
was elected district attorney of Ramsey County in 1884 and re-elected in 1886, 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 461 

and in October, 1889, was elected the first judge of the Second Judicial district. 

Judge Morgan was not only a popular judge in that district because of his 
faithfulness in discharging the exacting duties of this position, but was also 
highly esteemed by the bar and the people because of his intense loyalty to the 
law and his devotion to the principles of liberty as enunciated in our Constitution 
and as interpreted by the fathers. He was a man of decided convictions, perhaps 
might be said to have been somewhat slow in reaching conclusions. Of delightful 
personality, of frank and attractive manners he impressed his constituency as a 
man who is inspired by the loftiest motives and one who endeavored to mete out 
equal justice to all. 

The Bar Association of the State of North Dakota thus records its appreciation 
of the memory of Judge Morgan: "We regret the passing of the man of noble 
character, and the just and fearless judge. We regret that his life and official 
career could not have been prolonged to the end that his influence might be felt, 
in the court over which he so long presided, in the settling of new and vexing 
questions certain to arise incident to the new thoughts and ideas so rapidly 
developing in our political and industrial life. The great wisdom of the great- 
est judges of our country he may not have possessed, but legal learning and 
breadth of thought suflicient to comprehend underlying principles, together with a 
broad sense of justice, a full grasp of large equities, and abundant common sense, 
guided him instinctively to the right and contributed to the decisions in thirteen 
volumes of our reports, from which it will be said in the years to come, he was 
sound, able, and honest. Reviewing his twenty-two years of judicial experience, 
we do highly resolve to pay to his memory this tribute : With all his sympathies 
and love of humanity he was never so much the man that he forgot his duty as a 
judge, and with all his knowledge of law and precedent he was never so much 
the judge that he forgot his duty as a man." 

John Knauf, of Jamestown, was appointed by Governor E. Y. Sarles to fill 
the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Judge Young. He served until 
December 15, 1906, when he was succeeded by Charles J. Fisk, judge of the First 
Judicial District. 

Mr. Knauf had been nominated by th*^ repubhcan convention held at James- 
town for supreme judge. The bar in the northern part of the state were clamorous 
for the nomination of Fisk and to take the judiciary out of politics, but the friends 
of Knauf efifected a combination of delegates from the west and central portions of 
the state, sufficiently strong to nominate Knauf. Public sentiment was then ripe 
for a non-partisan judiciary. The people revolted and at the ensuing election, 
held in November, defeated Knauf and elected Fisk. Mr. Knauf returned to his 
home in Jamestown and resumed the practice of law. 

Charles J. Fisk, of Grand Forks, who had for ten years served with conspicu- 
ous ability and fidelity as district judge of the First Judicial District, was elected 
in 1906 to fill the unexpired term of Judge Young, and was re-elected for the term 
of six years commencing December 15, 1910. 

In political affiliations he is a democrat and is the only democrat ever elected 
to this court in the state. John Carmody of Hillsboro, a democrat, was, when the 
membership of the court was increased to five, appointed by Governor John Burke 
as associate justice. With these two exceptions the members of the court have 
been republican. 



462 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Judge Fisk has been an ideal judge. He has interpreted the law along broad 
lines and has avoided technical rules whenever in his judgment they conflicted with 
substantial justice. No consideration other than the merits has ever influenced him 
in the determination of cases. His profound knowledge of the law and his 
desire to e.xpound it along just and equitable lines radiate from every page of his 
opinions. He has illuminated every branch of the law that was involved in cases 
heard before him, but has never paraded his learning, never indulged in flights of 
fancy or imagination, but has expressed his views of the law in simple, pertinent 
language that carried conviction of the soundness of his interpretation. His 
kindliness of disposition, his independence and impartiality, as well as his learn- 
ing, have endeared him to the profession. The value of his services to the state 
cannot yet be correctly estimated. He is a candidate for re-election in November, 
1916, being one of the six highest named in the primary in June as one of the 
judges of the Supreme Court, and it is to be hoped that the people at this election 
will recall his service to the state and, with a grateful appreciation thereof, will 
vote to retain him on the bench which he has graced and dignified all the years of 
his judicial career. 

John M. Cochrane, of Grand Forks, was elected a judge of the Supreme Court 
for the term of six years in November, 1902. He died in office July 20, 1904. 
The republican state convention for the nomination of congressman and state 
officials was in session at Grand Forks at the time of his death. While 
Mr. Cochrane, after his election as judge, withdrew from active participation in 
the political aflfairs of the state, still, he attended this convention on July 20, 1904, 
as a disinterested spectator. He took no part in the proceedings of the conven- 
tion, but was consulted by delegates as to the policy of the party and advised them 
in its selection of nominees for the different state positions. He had always main- 
tained that it was not fitting for a man chosen from the active work of life to the 
exalted position of judge, to mingle in a partisan way in the politics of the state, 
but he was unable to resist the importunities and insistence of erstwhile friends 
and freely conferred with them and aided them in solving questions of polity. 
These were always private conferences. No persuasion or influence could induce 
him to serve as a delegate in the convention, or to participate in any way in its 
public deliberations. He believed that he had been sequestered from public 
aflfairs, so far as administration was concerned, and that his life was thence- 
forward dedicated to the interpretation of the law and in adjusting in a con- 
scientious, fair and just manner the dififerences of litigants. He spent a few hours 
in these conferences, and returning to his home on July 20th he expired suddenly 
about midnight. So the immortal soul of the great Cochrane passed to the great 
beyond. 

It was apparent to his friends before his promotion to the bench that death 
had marked him for an early victim. An insidious disease that baffled the high- 
est medical skill had fastened its fangs upon him and was slowly but surely sap- 
ping his vitality. He faced that ordeal of suffering without dismay. It was the 
hope of his friends that removal from the excitement, strife and labor incident to 
court trials would prolong his life, and so they secured his elevation to the 
bench. Cochrane died a victim of overwork. He never knew how to play. De- 
voted to the interests of his clients, whether city, county, state or private, he 
spent long hours in exhausting study and research until he had mastered the case 



EARLY HISTORY OF NO^TH DAKOTA 463 

and was fully prepared to protect and defend the interests committed to his care. 
All his trusts he filled with the highest fidelity and with superior ability. His 
was a great and towering personality, and in exalted mental endowments he stood 
as a mighty rock in the sea. 

The distinguishing quality of Mr. Cochrane's character was his humanity. He 
was intensely human, was not a saint and did not affect to be. He believed in the 
great essential virtues and had no patience with sham or pretensions. His favor- 
itism was lofty and generous, his moral courage great, his sincerity in word, deed 
and thought absolute, but his intense love of humanity was the touchstone and 
basis of his character. 

The resolutions of the Cass County Bar Association and those of Grand Forks 
County where he spent his hfe, which are recorded in the annals of the Supreme 
Court, are a worthy, fitting and truthful tribute to his memory. They are found 
in volume twelve of the Supreme Court Reports. 

Edward Engerud was nominated by the republican convention then in session 
to fill the unexpired term of Mr. Cochrane, and he was elected judge in Novem- 
ber following and re-elected for the term of six years in 1904 and resigned his 
office in 1907. Why he resigned an office whose duties and responsibilities he was 
well equipped to discharge he never publicly stated, but to intimate friends he 
made known the fact that financial considerations largely controlled. He was 
not in affluent circumstances, and with a family to maintain he deemed it advis- 
able to retire from the bench and devote himself to the practice of law. No 
doubt the meager remuneration paid by the state, the uncertain tenure of the 
office, in view of the discontent and unsettled political conditions then prevailing 
in the state, contributed also to the decision. He formed a partnership and be- 
came the senior member of the firm of Engerud, Holt & Frame at Fargo. His 
reputation as a successful and resourceful trial lawyer was such that from the 
beginning of his return to practice his services were in great demand. In 1910 
he was a candidate for United States senator to fill the unexpired term of M. N. 
Johnson, deceased, but was defeated for the nomination in the primary election 
by A. J. Gronna. Subsequently he was appointed by President Taft United 
States district attorney for the state, and he discharged the duties of this re- 
sponsible office with rare ability and fidelity. 

Burleigh F. Spalding of Fargo was appointed by Governor John Burke to fill 
the unexpired term of Judge Engerud. Mr. Spalding had been prominent in 
public affairs in territorial days. He was a member of the famous capital com- 
mission created by the Territorial Legislature in Yankton in 1883, which located 
the capital of the Territory of Dakota at Bismarck. He served with distinction 
in the convention that framed the constitution of the state, and was conspicuously 
efficient as a member of the joint commission to equitably distribute the assets and 
liabilities of the Territory of Dakota between the states of North and South 
Dakota. He served one term in Congress, but was defeated for renomination in 
the republican convention by a clique of ambitious malcontents from Cass County, 
reinforced by a group of delegates from the slope country. The slope country 
never forgave him for his failure to vote for Bismarck as the capital of the 
territory. Mr. Spalding was elected for the full term commencing December 15. 
Tgo8, but was defeated for re-election in 1914. Mr. Spalding's temperament is 
of judicial cast. He is well groimded in principles of the law, and he is logical 



464 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

and discriminating in applying these principles to concrete cases. His published 
opinions are expressed in terse, lucid language without any attempt at rhetorical 
effect. They are a plain exposition of the salient features of the controversy. 
He is both a sound and able jurist. 

In November, 1910, Edward T. Burke, of \'alley City, judge of the Fifth 
Judicial District, and Evan B. Goss, of Alinot, judge of the Eighth Judicial Dis- 
trict, were elected associate judges of the Supreme Court for the term of six years 
commencing in December, 1910. They defeated John Carmody and S. E. Ells- 
worth, the appointees of Governor John Burke. 

At the primary election held on June 28, 1916, Judge Burke was selected as 
one of the si.x to go on the nonpartisan judicial ballot for election in November. 
Judge Goss was defeated in the primaries and retired from the bench in De- 
cember, 1916. 

The Farmers' Nonpartisan League, through its officers and executive com- 
mittee, selected J. E. Robinson, of Fargo, L. E. Birdzell, of Grand Forks, and 
R. H. Grace, of Mohall, as their representatives on the supreme bench, and they 
were nominated in the primary and constitute three of the si.x whose names 
appeared on the judicial ballot at the general election in November, 1916. Chief 
Justice Fisk, Judge Burke and former Chief Justice Spalding are the other three. 
From these six the three receiving the highest number of votes in November 
would become the justices of the Supreme Court. 

Birdsell, Grace and Robinson were chosen at the November, 1916, election. 

On the 31st day of October, 191 1, Chief Justice David E. Morgan, be- 
cause of failing health, resigned, and Governor John Burke appointed Andrew 
A. Bruce, of Grand Forks, who was dean of the law school of the University of 
North Dakota, to succeed him. Mr. Bruce was elected for the six-year term be- 
ginning in December, 1912. He was both popular and capable as a professor of 
law. The graduates from the law school, who had located for practice in various 
sections of the state, supported him enthusiastically and he easily defeated Robin- 
son, his rival. Judge Bruce had but little practical experience in the courts, but 
he had thoroughly mastered all departments of the law. His opinions, while sub- 
ject to criticism because of their verbosity, are like a treatise in their exposition 
of the law applicable to the particular case — they exhaust the subject. Some of 
them are models of diction and learning and show long hours spent in study 
iand research. 

A. M. Christianson, of Towner, defeated Judge Spalding at the polls in No- 
vember, 1914, and was elected for a term of si.x years. He has been an indefatigable 
worker since his election to the bench and has aided the court very materially 
in keeping the calendar up to date. He follows closely the lines of least resistance 
and adheres to the "beaten paths" as shown in the precedents. A rule established 
in a given case, though it may be severe and somewhat arbitrary and therefore not 
promotive of substantial justice in many cases before the court for adjudication, 
should not be religiously binding upon the court but should be waived, modified 
and adapted to the changed conditions of the times. Though Judge Christianson 
has a sharply discriminating, open mind that analyzes carefully every proposition 
submitted for his consideration and conscientiously investigates it, and the con- 
clusions reached express his honest judgment of the law in that case, yet his 
close adherence to precedents makes him more of a "case" judge than an original 
expounder of underlying principles. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 465 

THE DISTRICT JUDGES 

The district judges are twelve in number, as follows: ist, Charles M. Cooley, 
Grand Forks ; 2d, C. W. Butts, Devil's Lake ; 3d, A. T. Cole, Fargo ; 4th, Frank 
P. Allen, Lisbon; 5th, J. A. Coffey, Jamestown; 6th, W. L. Nuessle; 7th, W. J. 
Kneeshaw, Pembina ; 8th, K. E. Leighton, Minot ; 9th, A. G. Burr, Rugby ; loth, 
W. C. Crawford, Dickinson; nth, Frank E. Fisk, Williston ; 12th, James M. 
Hanley, Mandan. 

THE BAR ASSOCIATION OF NORTH- DAKOTA 

The North Dakota Bar Association was organized at Fargo in the year 
1899, soon after the admission of the state to the Union. Hon. Seth Newman, 
of Fargo, was its first president, and R. W. S. Blackwell, of La Moure, its first 
secretary. It had a very checkered career in the early years of its existence, as 
few lawyers outside of the Red River Valley and the larger towns in the central 
and western portions of the state enrolled as members of the association. 

ITS PURPOSES 

The objects for which the association was formed were : 

I. To maintain the highest standard in the profession. 
■ 2. To promote professional fellowship among its members and the lawyers 
of the state. 

3. To aid in the securing of good government in the state and nation. 

4. To preserve inviolate the present high standard of the judiciary. 

ORGANIZATION 

All members of the bar of the state in good standing, who shall be accepted 
by the executive committee and who shall pay the yearly fee of $5 may become 
members of the association. 

An executive committee consisting of the officers of the association, viz. : 
The president, vice president, secretary and treasurer, together with one person 
from each judicial district, who shall be appointed by the president, passes upon 
the qualifications of applicants for admission to the association. No lawyer 
can become a member of the association until his application has been approved 
by this executive committee. 

The association meets at least once in each year, but whenever an exigency 
presents itself, the president may call a special meeting at the request of three 
members of the association. 

The work of the association devolves upon three standing committees, viz. : 

1. Committee on jurisprudence and law reform. 

2. Committee on legal education and admission to the bar. 

3. A disbarment committee. 

It is the duty of the committee on jurisprudence and law reform to consider 
proposed amendments to the codes at each meeting of the association, to report 
the changes, if any, that have been made by the Legislature since the last meet- 
ing, also all modifications of the rules of practice that shall have been made by 
the Supreme Court, and to recommend such changes in the code and in the 

Vol. 1—30 



466 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

practice, as in the judgment of the committee tend to secure a proper reform of 
the laws. 

It is the duty of the committee on legal education and admission to the bar 
to recommend to the faculty of the University of Law a course of study to be 
pursued as a qualification for admission to the bar, and to recommend to the 
Supreme Court a standard of education and qualification to be adhered to as 
prerequisite of admission to the bar. 

The committee has recommended a three years' course of study as a pre- 
requisite to admission and the passing of an examination on twenty-seven 
different subjects covering every branch of substantive law and practice as an 
essential qualification of admission to practice. These recommendations have 
been approved by the Supreme Court, and the result has been to give to the state 
in the past five years a large number of young lawyers well versed in the law 
and thoroughly equipped in the practice. 

The disbarment committee consists of three attorneys who have supervision 
of all complaints made to the association against members of the bar of the state, 
whether members of the association or not. 

It is their duty to investigate all such complaints when they are substantiated 
by affidavits or documentary evidence supporting the charges. They must fix. a 
day for the hearing of the proofs of the charges, give the accused at least ten 
days' notice of such hearing and permit him to appear and produce before the 
committee any evidence he may desire to submit. The investigation must be 
made secretly and v^rithout any publicity whatsoever, and if the committee find 
from their investigation that further investigation is necessary, it is their duty 
to prepare and file in the office of the clerk of the Supreme Court an accusation 
in accordance with the provisions of the Revised Codes relating to disbarment, 
and see that it is presented in that court. 

The Legislature has prescribed by statute that all complaints against mem- 
bers of the bar shall be referred to the Bar Association, and its officers and 
committees are clothed with authority to subpoena witnesses and administer 
oaths. 

The expenses of conducting investigations and prosecutions are by law an 
absolute charge against the state. There is an annual appropriation of one 
thousand ($1,000.00) dollars by the state for this purpose, to be disbursed under 
direction of the Supreme Court. 

The attitude of the association toward good government is well expressed 
by Hon. John E. Greene, of Minot, who was president of the association in 1912, 
and who in the annual address to the association at Janiestown, September 3, 
1912, said: 

"If we are to aid in securing good government, we must participate in every 
controversy, the issue of which may aflFect the stability and efficiency of any 
department of the government. Any law which threatens that stability and 
efficiency is an assault upon the justice which guarantees to every man that 
which is his due. And shall we, as ministers of justice, stand idly by while laws 
are made which tie the hands of her judges, disgrace her courts, and make 
mockery of the immutable principles which, in and by her name, have won every 
battle for human liberty, sanctified the noblest efforts, and crowned with amazing 
success the worthiest ambitions of men? Let it not be understood that the enact- 
ment of such laws is regarded as a necessary result of the present agitation with 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 467 

respect to governmental reforms. But we must not overlook the possibilities. 
History admonishes that the excessive zeal of advocates of radical measures has 
often so aroused the passions of the people that their action has reached extremes 
undreamed of by their most enthusiastic leaders. The existence of sucli condi- 
tions presents a rare opportunity for the bar, through conscientious and con- 
certed action, to demonstrate its fidelity to the common good, and render worthy 
service to a somewhat bewildered people. It can be done by proceeding, with 
diligence and energy, to weed out from our laws those things which make it 
possible to defeat justice by delay; which hedge about the courts with a network 
of useless technicality in the matter of pleadings, objections, exceptions, assign- 
ments, and specifications of error, statements of the case, bills of exceptions, and 
many other things which bring no light or aid to courts or juries in determining 
the rights of litigants; things which make unjustly expensive the processes of 
appeal, and which make records on appeal confusing instead of helpful to the 
Appellate Court. 

'Tf we can demonstrate to the people that it is the purpose of the lawyers 
of the state, acting through this association, to simplify the procedure and to 
shorten the time between the summons and the judgment, we shall not only help 
the litigant, but we shall help ourselves and satisfy the people that the bar 
deserves more consideration than it has had from them in recent years. 

"Every lawyer knows that these reforms in matters of procedure are the 
things which the profession wants, and that reforms in other things to be men- 
tioned later, are needed, but members of the profession have heretofore been 
indiiTerent to their own welfare, and to that of their clients, and so the reforms 
have not come. The people have also the right to expect from the bar direction 
and aid in securing upright and capable judges. It is the imperative duty of 
every lawyer, and of the county, district and state bar associations, to use ever)' 
legitimate means to insure the selection, for such positions, of the men having 
the highest qualifications therefor. Neither partisanship nor any other considera- 
tion should deter the bar from taking the most advanced position in this matter. 
Our critics may accuse the association of mixing in politics if it undertakes to 
influence the judgment of the people in these things. 

"We need not hesitate to plead guilty to the accusation. Under our system 
of state government the election of judges is a political affair of the highest 
order. And shall not that body of men which can best judge of the qualifications 
of lawyers for judicial office indulge in the politics which involves the selection 
of such officers? 

"We may not, and we ought not, to suffer partisanship to enter into this 
question, but the politics of a judicial campaign is a thing apart from partisan- 
.ship. In every such campaign, a bar association should be the most active, the 
most potent factor in it. 

"The enactment of laws to shorten and make plain the highways of justice, 
and the selection of upright and wise men to administer justice according to 
those laws, are the things which, more than all others, give strength and stability 
to government. 

"This association under its constitution stands pledged to aid in securing 
good government, and especially to the maintenance of the highest standard of 
the judiciary. Within the bar of the state exists the ability and the power to 
promote and attain these things, and if in the accomplishment of them we must 



468 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

resort to politics, it is incumbent upon the bar, by bringing those quaHties into 
action, to demonstrate to the people of this state that it can be done, and that the 
bar is the cleanest and most progressive political power in the state. 

"Steadfastly and earnestly pursuing such a course, we shall soon find the 
people of this state looking to us for guidance in these important concerns, with 
confidence in our loyalty to their interests as well as to our own. We owe it to 
ourselves and to the cause of justice to put ourselves into such a relationship to 
the people of this state and their government. 

"It was my privilege last winter to hear one of the greatest of American 
lawyers and statesmen, when addressing a similar organization, use words which 
ought to kindle some enthusiasm in the heart of any lawyer. He said : 

" 'We have believed, we have always believed, our fathers believed, our gov- 
ernment is founded upon the belief, that for the weakest and the humblest, be 
he a criminal condemned to death, be he without friends, money or power, or 
influence, whoever speaks in the name of that justice which is superior to human 
desires and impulses and wishes, has behind him the power of the deliberate and 
mature judgment of the people in their sober moments, when the voice of the 
people is the voice of God. * * * 

" 'There is one thing which above all others has seemed to me to make the 
advocate of essential value to the preservation of liberty and the maintenance 
of justice, and that is that he fears not the face of power. With all our short- 
comings, with all the wide variation of character, and the many differing degrees 
of ability and force which are found in an association of lawyers like this, there 
is one thing among all the lawyers of America we are sure to find, and that is, 
that for the weakest, for the poorest, for the most unnoted and uncared for 
client, we fear not, not one of us, not the weakest of us, to assert rights against 
all overwhelming power whatever. So long as there exists in a civil community 
a great body of men who have that characteristic, liberty cannot die.' " 

REFORM OF CIVIL PROCEDURE 

The aim of the association is to have the civil procedure improved and sim- 
plified by rules of court rather than by legislative enactment. It realizes that 
legislative reform is a slow process, that it can be had only at long inter\'als, 
while such reform as the courts themselves have the power to apply can be had 
without delay. Small defects in procedure, or mere verbal inaccuracies, may 
render a law inoperative. Amendment by law of such defects or inaccuracies 
is of necessity slow, while reform by rules of court is elastic and defects and 
inaccuracies can be readily amended, modified and perfected as time and experi- 
ence may demonstrate. The whole subject matter is peculiarly within the 
province of the judicial department, and it is to be hoped that the bar association 
will labor with the Legislature until it ceases to legislate on procedure and rele- 
gates the entire subject to the courts. The present tendency in North Dakota 
is toward making changes in and additions to our laws easier, and to invite into 
the field of legislative activity the entire electorate of the state. It is not surprising 
that those who are giving intelligent thought to questions of civil government 
should begin to devise plans for placing beyond the reach of legislative inter- 
ference the subjects of practice and procedure in the courts. 

Elihu Root, president of the Bar Association of New York, in igti, com- 
menting on this subject, said : 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 469 

"Comparison between the two statutes reveals plainly the fact that for many 
years we have been pursuing the policy of attempting to regulate by specific and 
minute statutory enactment all the details of the process by which, under a multi- 
tude of varying conditions, suitors may get their rights. 

"Such a policy never ends. The attempt to cover by express, specific enact- 
ment, every conceivable contingency, inevitably leads to continual discovery of 
new contingencies and unanticipated results, requiring continual amendment and 
supplement. Whatever we do to our Code, so long as the present theory of 
legislation is followed the Code will continue to grow and the vast mass of 
specific and technical provisions will continue to increase. I submit to the Judg- 
ment of the profession that the method is wrong, the theory is wrong, and that 
the true remedy is to sweep from our statute books the whole mass of detailed 
provisions and substitute a simple practice act containing only the necessary 
fundamental rules of procedure, leaving all the rest to the rules of court. When 
that has been done the Legislature should leave our procedure alone." 

Again in the same address, and referring to the practice under the New York- 
Code as it now is, he said: 

"Let me recall some of the effects of such a system as we now have, well 
known as they are to all of us. The system of attempting to cover every minute 
detail with legislation appropriate to every conceivable set of circumstances is 
to create a great number of statutoi7 rights which the courts are bound to respect 
because they are the law; which suitors are entitled to demand because the law 
gives them. In some cases they may contribute to the attainment of justice. 
In other cases they may obstruct it. The courts cannot apply the rule of justice 
because they must apply the law. These artificial statutory rights become the 
subject matter of special litigation intervening between the demand for redress 
and the attainment of it." 

OFFICERS SINCE ORG.ANIZATION 

Presidents 

Seth Newman, Fargo, 1899-1902. 
James H. Bosard, Grand Forks, 1902-1904. 
H. A. Libby, Park River, 1904- 1906. 
John Carmody, Hillsboro, 1906- 1907. 
S. E. Ellsworth, Jamestown, 1907-1908. 
F. H. Register, Bismarck, 1908-1909. 
Lee Combs, Valley City, 1909-1910. 
Andrew A. Bruce, Grand Forks, 1910-1911. 
John E. Greene, Minot, 1911-1913. 

A. G. Divet, Wahpeton, 1913-1914. 
John Knauf, Jamestown, 1914-1915. 

B. W. Shaw, Mandan, 1915-1916. 

Secretaries 

W. J. Burke, Bathgate, 1899-1902. 
W. H. Thomas, Leeds, 1902-1912. 
W. H. Stutsman, Mandan, 1912-1913. 
Oscar J. Seller, Jamestown, 1913-1916. 



CHAPTER XXIX 
PROHIBITION 

A brief statement of the sentiment of the Territory of Dakota prior to its 
division into separate states is essential to a clear understanding of the steps 
which led to the adoption by the Constitutional Convention of an article pro- 
hibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, and 
providing for its submission for ratification or rejection, to a separate vote at 
the election which should be called for the adoption of the constitution. 

Many people both of North and South Dakota were opposed to the license 
system for the sale of intoxicating liquors, which had been the policy of the 
territory from its creation. This license system made it possible for saloons to 
exist in every city, town and village of the territory. Saloons were everywhere, 
saloonmen were dominant political factors and were in many localities the con- 
trolling influence in the selection of county, city and school officers. 

Temperance people denounced the lawlessness of the saloonmen and led by 
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, inaugurated in the early 8o's sys- 
tematic work for the extermination of saloons and the eliminating of saloonmen 
as political powers in the territory. Their agitation and efforts in behalf of 
temperance awakened public sentiment and the Territorial Legislature chosen 
in 1887 was opposed to the license system and favorable to prohibition. It 
enacted a county local option law, and it was approved by the tjien governor of 
the state, Louis K. Church, on the nth day of March, 1887. 

A number of counties by vote substituted the prohibition policy for the license 
system and the battle for the banishment of saloons from the territory was 
earnestly waged, and the sentiment for absolute prohibition throughout the 
territory marched forward by leaps and bounds. 

The Territorial Legislature which assembled at Bismarck in January, 1889, 
was favorable to prohibition. A bill providing for it throughout the territory 
was passed by the Council, but on the 22d day of February, 1889, the Congress 
of the United States had passed, and President Cleveland had approved, the 
so-called "Enabling Act," in which was a provision for the division of the terri- 
tory, and its admission to the Union as two separate states. 

OCCUPATION GONE 

The Territorial Legislature wisely concluded its "occupation was gone" and 
therefore the House defeated the prohibition bill of the Council and relegated 
the entire subject to the prospective states. This bill was practically and literally 
a copy of the statute of Kansas on the subject, and was the foundation upon 

470 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 471 

which was constructed the present prohibitory law of this state. The "Enabling 
Act" prescribed that the governor of the territory, the chief justice and the secre- 
tary thereof, should meet at Bismarck, the then capital of the territory, and 
divide it into twenty-five districts, as nearly equal in population as practicable, 
three delegates to be chosen from each district, who were to meet at Bismarck 
for the North Dakota Constitutional Convention. Prior to the Constitutional 
Convention there was an organization existing in North Dakota known as The 
North Dakota Non-Partisan Temperance Alliance, which took an active part in 
the selection and election of delegates favorable to the principle of prohibition. 
Under its auspices a state convention composed of about one hundred delegates 
convened at Grand Forks, to consider the question of prohibition. 

After a full discussion and consideration of the question in all its aspects, 
this convention recommended that an article favoring prohibition be embodied 
in the constitution and submitted to the people as a separate proposition. They 
wanted an independent expression of sentiment, and did not desire that the final 
adoption of the constitution by the people be endangered. It feared that the 
saloon element in the state might combine with those opposed to statehood and 
thus defeat the constitution itself. This strategic move of the temperance forces 
impressed the delegates of the Constitutional Convention favorably, and the 
eflfort to embody prohibition in the constitution, to stand or fall with the con- 
stitution as a whole, was defeated by a substantial vote. The outcome of the 
election on the adoption of the constitution proved the wisdom of the temperance 
forces, as the article was adopted by the meager majority of 1,159, there being 
18,552 for the adoption, and 17,393 against adoption. President Harrison issued 
his proclamation declaring that North Dakota had adopted a constitution, repub- 
lican in form, with prohibition as a separate article thereof, and admitting it into 
the Union on the 2d day of November, 1889. 

Upon the happening of this event, John Miller, who had been elected governor 
of the state, called the first session of the State Legislature to assemble at 
Bismarck on the 19th day of November, 1889, which continued its session up 
to and including March 18, 1890. 

NON-PARTISAN ALLIANCE 

In the meantime the North Dakota Non-Partisan Temperance Alliance had 
selected Charles A. Pollock, of Fargo, who for many years has been judge of 
the Third Judicial District, a recognized leader of prohibition sentiment, and a 
notably vigorous prosecutor of violators of the local option law ; Robert M. 
Pollock, who had been a member of the Constitutional Convention, and chiefly 
instrumental in the passage of the prohibitory article ; and George F. Goodwin, 
the first attorney-general of the state, and a known prohibitionist, as a cominittee 
to draft and submit for the consideration of the Legislature, a law which should 
prescribe regulations for the enforcement of the prohibitory article, and provide 
adequate penalties for its violation. The work of preparing this law devolved 
mainly upon Judge Pollock, and the ground work upon which he built the entire 
statute was the prohibition bill passed by the territorial council of 1889. 

This bill was amended, modified and adapted to the different conditions 
prevailing in North Dakota, some provisions of the Iowa law on the subject 



472 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

were incorporated and a number of original propositions were added, especially 
the procedure in contempt cases. This procedure is found in no other law of 
the United States, and to Judge Pollock belongs the credit of originating and 
perfecting it. The law so prepared was introduced in the House, by Representa- 
tive Haugen of Grand Forks, chairman of the temperance committee of the 
House, and is known on its records as House Bill No. 6. It was simultaneously 
introduced in the Senate by Senator Rowe of Cass County, who was also presi- 
dent of the Temperance Alliance, and it is known on the Senate Records as 
Senate Bill No. i. 

The House acted promptly and passed the bill with few amendments, the 
most important being that the law should take effect April 1st, instead of Janu- 
ary 1st, as provided in the original draft. On December 12, 1889, it passed the 
House by a vote of 59 ayes to i nay, two members being absent and excused. 
It was in due course messaged to the Senate, where it successfully "ran the 
gauntlet" of dilatory motions and amendments. The principal amendment made 
in the Senate was to strike out "The Emergency Clause" making the law in 
force and effect July ist. This amendment was concurred in by the House 
and the bill was enrolled, signed by the proper officers of the respective houses 
and presented to Governor Miller, who signed the same on the 19th of December, 
1889. Thus promptly the Legislature obeyed the mandate of the fundamental law 
of the state and by statute law prescribed drastic penalties for its violation. 

On July I, 1890, the open saloon disappeared from the state, except in a few 
communities, where the local sentiment was adverse to prohibition. The reput- 
able saloon men who had prospered under the license system, as a rule obeyed 
the law, closed out their business and moved to states where the license system 
was in vogue. 

The lawless, disreputable and irresponsible persons opened "blind pigs" and 
supported, to a certain extent, by public sentiment in their locality, evaded the 
law and defied the authorities. Then a volunteer association was formed in the 
state, known as the State Enforcement League, which, in co-operation with 
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, raised funds and vigorously made 
war upon these law breakers. Great credit should be given these organizations for 
their vigilance in suppressing this lawlessness, and in enforcing the statutory 
and constitutional provisions. Their members gave freely of their time and 
money, not only to exterminate saloons and blind pigs, but also to secure legisla- 
tion strengthening and making more efficient the existing law. Representatives 
of these organizations attended the legislative sessions and defeated every attempt 
to weaken the law, or to submit the question of prohibition again to the vote of 
the people. Frank Lynch, a prominent business man of Cass County, was 
president of the Enforcement League, until he moved to California, when he 
was succeeded by R. B. Griffith, of Grand Forks, who has devoted much time 
from his business interests, and thereby contributed largely to the maintenance 
of law and order in the state. 

Elizabeth Preston-Anderson, who has been president of the Woman's Christian 
Temperance Union since statehood, always attended the legislative sessions, where 
she worked without cessation, night and day, to prevent the repeal of the law, 
or a passage of a re-submission amendment to the constitution. She secured also 
much of the. additional legislation which tended to strengthen the prohibitory 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 473 

law, and aid in its enforcement. The friends of temperance everywhere owe a 
debt of gratitude to this fragile little woman who successfully combated every 
movement of the liquor forces, which endeavored in a number of legislative ses- 
sions to modify the law by striking out its imprisonment provisions, and submit 
a constitutional amendment repealing prohibition. 

AMENDMENTS 

Among the amendments to the law was one passed in 1895 as to "Druggists' 
Permits." The county courts were authorized when petitioned by twenty-five 
reputable freeholders to grant a hearing upon notice to the public and if no 
protest was filed or objection made, to issue a permit upon the applicant filing a 
bond in the sum of $1,000, conditioned that he would sell and dispense intoxicating 
liquors according to the provisions of the prohibition law. 

Then a statute was enacted defining intoxicating liquors so as to include any 
mixture that would produce intoxication and any liquors containing certain 
ingredients were to be considered intoxicating. But any liquors containing less 
than 2 per cent of alcohol by volume were declared non-intoxicating. 

In 1903 under the administration of Governor Elmore Y. Sarles, a law 
ofifering a reward of $50, for the arrest and conviction of any violator of the 
prohibition law, was enacted, the reward to be paid by the county where the 
ofTense was committed. The results obtained under this law were unsatisfac- 
tory and it was repealed in 1909. 

During the administration of John Burke as governor, the seizure and con- 
fiscation of liquors, either with or without warrant was authorized, providing, 
however, that this law should not apply to registered pharmacists. The publi- 
cation and registration of the Federal special tax receipts was provided for 
and the importation of unusually large amounts of any liquors, wines or beer, 
was constituted presumptive evidence that the importation was a violation of 
law; soliciting orders for intoxicating liquors was declared unlawful and pun- 
ishable as a misdemeanor. The owner of a building where intoxicating liquors 
were kept for sale and sold as a beverage was declared liable for its unlawful 
use. The issuance of druggists' permits was taken from the County Court and 
lodged in District Courts. Application was to be made and thirty days' public 
notice of hearing on the application were prerequisites of granting a permit, 
but physicians were permitted to prescribe liquors in cases of emergency, pro- 
vided, however, one-half pint was prescribed for one sale and one delivery. 
Liquor advertising in any form was declared unlawful and the use of liquor 
on passenger trains and its use in any state institution forbidden, and the giving 
away and distribution of liquors to be used as a beverage was also declared 
unlawful. At this time the keeping of a place where any intoxicating liquors 
were sold was in a large portion of the state entirely suppressed, but the lawless 
element continued the sale of intoxicating liquors, especially during the harvest 
season, by hawking it in satchels, and from the pockets of overcoats, and in the 
administration of Governor Hanna. this system, properly known as "bootleg- 
ging," was declared a crime, punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary 
for a period of six months to a year. The enforcement of the law was materi- 
ally aided also by the passage of an act authorizing the attorney-general, his 



474 EARLY HISTORY OF XORTH DAKOTA 

assistants, states attorneys and their assistants, to inspect the records of freight 
and express companies, and by providing a penalty for receiving or receipting 
for liquor in a fictitious name. 

THE COURTS ACT FAVORAl'.LY 

The District courts of the state have consistently and uniformly upheld the 
law and meted out severe punishment to offenders. The Supreme Court has 
construed the law liberally and has held as constitutional all statutes passed to 
aid in its enforcement, except the law providing for the appointment of tem- 
perance commissioner, who had been given the powers of an assistant attorney- 
general, and of a states attorney. The Supreme Court holding in that case 
that such police powers were conferred exclusively by the constitution upon 
the attorney-general and states attorneys, and the attempt to confer these powers 
upon a commissioner was in violation of the constitutional provision. 

It is not, however, within the purview of a historical article to analyze and 
comment upon the different provisions of this law. It is sufficient to say that 
for a quarter of a century it has stood the test of the courts where it has been 
fiercely assailed from every legal standpoint. Its constitutionality is now 
unquestioned, and its procedure is universally accepted as a proper and reason- 
able exercise of the police power of the state. It stands as a monument to the 
legal learning and the ability of Judge Charles A. Pollock, the father of the 
prohibition law. 

In connection with the above this writer called upon Judge Pollock for a 
statement of his present views in relation to the efifect and enforcement of the 
prohibition law. The following is his reply : 

"Fargo, August 7, 191 5. 
"Col. C. A. Lounsberry, 

"76 New York Ave. N. E., 
"Washington, D. C. 

"My Dear Colonel : In response to your favor of the 3d will say that I am 
sending you under another cover a copy of my Manual of the Prohibition Law 
of the State of North Dakota. The first chapter you will see is devoted to a 
short history of the law, and I believe will cover generally what you want. Mr. 
Hamilton spoke to me recently at Grand Forks concerning the matter, and I 
called his attention to where he could get a similar book. 

"In that book I made very little comment upon the personal matters involved. 
I might have added that the pens with which the law was signed were given to 
me and I sent them to my mother, Mrs. John Pollock, then living at Clinton, 
Iowa, as a Christmas present, giving her a life lease of the same. Upon her 
death, twenty years ago, they were returned to me and are now in my pos- 
session and I expect to turn them over to the historical society of the state. It 
is quite important to notice that only one vote was cast against the bill in the 
House and eight in the Senate. 

"In addition to what was said in that connection, it might be well to note 
that immediately upon entering statehood and the passage of this law, the 
courts were compelled to wrestle with all questions growing out of its constitu- 
tionality, and certain matters with reference to statutory construction which 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 475 

would suggest themselves to the attorneys who were attempting to get their 
clients out of limbo when charged with unlawful sales. 

"I know something about that litigation, for I think I was connected with 
it all, and it is my pleasure, viewed from this standpoint and period of life, 
to add that it was done without compensation, since the respect and loyalty of 
a splendid class of citizens through all these years have conferred the highest 
reward. 

"It has always been my theory that liquor and larceny cases should be tried 
just alike. Since going upon the bench I have adopted that policy. The trouble 
is with liquor people they want a big advantage and feel piqued if the courts 
do not put them in a little higher class than other ordinary criminals. I am 
glad, however, to say that in at least a large part of the state that notion is 
fast passing away. In my district we have no more trouble in dealing with a 
liquor than a larceny case. 

"I do not believe that a person charged with the crime of violating the Pro- 
hibitory Liquor Law should be convicted unless the evidence is sufficient, and 
very frequently I have been called upon to dismiss actions where the proof was 
not of the high grade required by law to convict. Sometimes the temperance 
people make the mistake in expecting the courts to convict without evidence or 
upon hearsay evidence. No successful enforcement of law can be ever accom- 
plished upon that theory. This is an age when people are demanding a 'square 
deal,' and they ought to have it if possible. 

"You have no idea what an improvement has come to our twin cities — Fargo 
and Moorhead — by the extermination of the saloons in Clay County. During 
the month of July, 1914, there were 439 arrests. During the month of July, 
1915, there were but 31, and 28 of those occurred the first two days in July, 
which really constituted a part of the final wind-up of the saloon system. In 
other words, for the month of July, after July 2d, there were only three arrests. 
You probably know that during the last year in Moorhead there were over four 
thousand arrests. 

"I have a feeling, Colonel, that prohibition has not only been a good thing for 
the State of North Dakota, but also that the state was fortunate in being able 
to set an example to other states in the Union and by such example have been 
able to demonstrate the possibility and the practicability of the prohibitory system 
of dealing with the liquor traffic. If you were to see my mail and observe the 
notes of inquiry coming from all over this country and others, you would feel 
persuaded that in this last statement I am correct. We have been as it were 'a 
city set upon a hill,' and the peoples of other cities and countries have been 
watching our movements. It was fortunate, therefore, that Maine, Kansas and 
North Dakota were able to stand during the crucial period when other states, 
which had previously adopted prohibition, were going back to their cups. 

"You probably read in the paper of my sentence of one Hendrickson who 
plead guilty to the murder of his wife. That will give you my settled and de- 
termined conviction with reference to the American saloon after thirty-four 
years' contact with it, four of which in territorial days I was prosecuting attorney 
under the license system, and recently nineteen years as presiding judge of this 
district. 

"In the month of June last I was asked by the editor of the Christian Advo- 



476 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

cate of New York (the leading Methodist paper of the country) to prepare an 
article on a quarter of a century of prohibition in North Dakota. It was pub- 
lished in the issue of June 27, 191 5. I have, however, a copy which I enclose 
for your convenience. 

"If you will turn to my history in the Manual you will see that I was chair- 
man of the committee which framed the prohibitory law. I presume it is 
because of that that I am 'frequently styled in this state, though improperly, 'the 
father of the Prohibition Law.' You know that in all instances of this kind the 
chairman of the committee receives more honor than is his due, and especially 
if the measure has been one of great importance. For instance, Hobson is known 
as the hero of the Merrimac, and yet I presume the seven other fellows who 
were with him and whose names are forgotten, were just as heroic and did as 
valiant service as did Hobson, but Hobson happened to be the chairman of the 
bunch. Of course this is nothing against Hobson, but it rather illustrates a 
condition. 

"You know full well that R. M. Pollock was a member of the Constitutional 
convention, while I was not. He was a member of the temperance committee 
of that body. Of course all interested per.sons both in and out of the Constitu- 
tional convention may have helped phrase the article in the Constitution, but only 
those who were in the convention, and especially those upon the committee, are 
entitled to credit for that work. I have frequently been introduced to public 
audiences as the one who prepared the Constitutional article. That is an error, 
although I did give all the advice that I had at hand with reference to it. You 
know that R. M. Pollock and I are not related. 

"With reference to the law, having been a prosecuting attorney here at the 
See city of the Judiciary of North Dakota, because then we only had one judge 
for all this part of the state — Judge McConnell — it fell to my lot in the year 1887 
to work out many of the problems in connection with the enforcement of the 
Prohibitory Law occurring that year under local option. 

"With this experience naturally a large part of the work fell upon me, but 
I want to say that the people of North Dakota can never fully repay R. M. Pol- 
lock and George F. Goodwin, who was then attorney general, for the assistance 
they rendered in the final preparation of the law. It is but just to them, and I 
hope if you make any mention of the facts in your history you will not fail to 
accord full credit to them. I worked out the original plan of the law basing 
it upon the Kansas law and after getting a proposed law in shape I then pre- 
sented it to the other members of the committee. We then worked over and 
wrought out the bill in the best manner and in the quickest time possible, and 
it is only fair to say for the committee that not one of them ever received one 
penny of compensation for what they did, and even paid their own expenses 
while in attendance upon the Legislature during the passage of the bill. 

"After the matter was all assembled my wife (who was then doing all my 
typewriting") ran it oflF on the typewriter — making sufficient copies of the Bill 
for introduction into both houses, and use of the committees, and thus I have 
frequently said in a jocular manner that a 'woman wrote the Prohibitory Law 
of North Dakota.' 

"With sincere regards I beg to remain, very respectfully, 

"CHAS. A. POLLOCK." 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 477 

SENTENCE OF ROBERT HENDRICKSON 

Remarks of Judge Charles A. Pollock upon passing sentence upon Robert 
Hendrickson in the District Court, January 30, 1915: 

"Divine and human law declare 'Thou shalt not kill.' You stand before the 
bar of justice confessing to have committed the revolting crime of murdering, in 
cold blood, the woman you promised to love, honor and protect. Another crime, 
that of attempted self-destruction, could justly be laid at your door. The inno- 
cent babe which came to bless your home has been robbed of a mother's tender 
care. You have pleaded guilty and now await the sentence of an offended law. 

"It is a most solemn moment in the life of a court, when he is called upon to 
sit in judgment upon his fellow men. Murder and treason are kindred offenses. 
The one affects the individual, the other the State. Both alike are heinous and 
the penalty of death may be inflicted for eitlier. 

"Your only excuse in mitigation is that you were drunk when you committed 
the deed — a plea which can only be received to save you from the gallows. 

"I do not know, and, under the present state of our law, I never want to know, 
who sold you the liquor, under the influence of which you committed this 
unnatural crime. Let that man's conscience bring such remorse that its ener- 
gizing power will never let go until the largest possible reparation be made. 

"Whoever he was, and wherever he may be at this sad moment; whether his 
place of business is in the well-adorned and highly decorated room where tempting 
viands appeal to the taste; where sweet music delights the ear and lulls to sleep 
the reasoning faculties ; or whether it is in the lowest, dirtiest, man-abandoned, 
God-forsaken and death-dealing charnel-house of despair, where abides only 
thoughtless and sullen greed for gain, it matters not; before the bar of God, if 
not of man, he stands alike with you morally responsible for this horrible crime. 

"The trouble is he is not here with you to receive a merited punishment. 

"The statute says 'All persons concerned in the commission of a public offense, 
whether they directly commit the act constituting the offense, or aid or abet in 
its commission ; or who by fraud, contrivance or force, occasion the drunkenness 
of another for the purpose of causing him to commit any crime, are principals in 
any crime so committed.' 

"If your partner in this offense were here, he would plead by way of defense 
that he did not 'by fraud, contrivance or force' occasion your drunkenness — a plea 
which would have to be sustained. • 

"How much longer will the courts be deprived of authority to do complete 
justice between their fellow men? An enlightened and long suffering public will 
some day, and that very soon, rise in the majesty of their power, and demand that 
the Legislature strike out 'the words 'by fraud, contrivance or force' and 'for the 
purpose of causing him to commit any crime,' and boldly declare that he who 
in any manner sells intoxicating liquor to another as a beverage, under the 
mfluence of which a crime, whether of murder or of some lesser offense, is com- 
mitted, is equally guilty as a principal in any crime so committed. Such a law 
would distribute the blame and place it upon all those responsible for the crime. 

"The persons who, for business or other reasons, vote to permit the continu- 
ance of a traffic which robs men of their reason, increasing the liability of crime 
being committed, are in a measure responsible. Away with your mistaken notions 



478 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

of business necessity. It does not exist. Treason against the State stalks abroad 
in our midst. How much longer will the people permit both treason and murder, 
in order that there may be continued a system of dealing with the liquor traffic 
which preys upon the appetites and passions of men? A quarter of a century ago 
the good people of our state dissolved partnership with the accursed license 
system. The State of Minnesota still permits the evil. Her splendid western 
City of Moorhead, well located for business and containing some of the best 
people on earth, seems blind to the great wrong of the traffic in rum. We must 
suffer because of their inability to see. Most of the persons sent to the peniten- 
tiary by this court would not be deprived of their liberty, and our state would not 
be burdened with heavy expense for their care, had they not gotten drunk in the 
saloons of Moorhead. The time has come when this iniquity should be banished 
forever. You, who will suffer all your life because of your misdeed, may uncon- 
sciously by your act arouse public sentiment to the end that such oft'enses will not 
be repeated and that its contributing cause will be removed. It is devoutly to be 
wished that such will be the case. 

"The sentence and judgment of the law is that you, Robert Hendrickson, be 
confined in the penitentiary at Bismarck at hard labor for, and during, the 
remainder of your natural life. Let judgment be entered accordingly. 

"Chas. a. Pollock, Judge." 

A QUARTER OF A CENTURY OF PROHIBITION IN NORTH DAKOTA 

BY JUDGE CHAS. A. POLLOCK, LL. D. 

By your letter of the 25th inst. I am called to the witness stand. You want 
me to give evidence as to the results of prohibition in North Dakota. There is 
a vast distinction between testimony and evidence. The former is what a person 
says under oath, the latter what can be believed of such statements. A witness 
should be competent. That is to say, he ought to know from personal knowledge 
of the facts, about which he proposes to testify. A lack of method for gathering 
statistics renders it possible to put before the public many statements which, by 
reason of the incompetency of their authors, cannot be believed, and therefore 
ought not to be considered as evidence. In weighing the credibility of testimony 
we have a right to take into consideration the personal interest of the witness. 
When brewers and saloonmen give their testimony as to the failure of prohibition 
it is exceedingly appropriate to ask by what interest are they moved. 

I must presume that you consider me competent to speak, else you would not 
make your request. Before statehood, under territorial law, the license system 
prevailed. In 1887 there was passed a county local option law, under which 
several of the counties in what now constitutes North and South Dakota went 
dry. In 1889 both states were admitted to the Union, each carrying in its consti- 
tution a prohibitory clause. Paragraph 217 of our constitution reads as follows: 

"No person, association or corporation shall within this state, manufacture for 
sale or gift, any intoxicating liquors, and no person, association or corporation 
shall import any of the same for sale or gift, or keep or sell or offer the same for 
sale, or gift, barter or trade as a beverage. The legislative assembly shall by law 
prescribe regulations for the enforcement of the provisions of this article and 
shall thereby provide suitable penalties for the violation thereof." 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 479 

In harmony with the mandates of this section the Legislature in December 
of that year enacted our present Prohibitory Liquor Law, which has remained 
upon the statute books with sHght changes, made necessary as experience indi- 
cated, where improvements could be made. 

It should be remembered that our penalties were adequate in the first in- 
stance. For the first offense the lowest penalty is $200.00 fine and 90 days in 
the county jail, the highest, $1,000.00 fine and one year in the county jail. 
For the second and each succeeding offense the penalty is not less than one and not 
to exceed two years in the penitentiary. By a recent amendment so-called 
bootleggers — persons who carry around on their person or in grips liquors 
for sale — are sent to the penitentiary for all offenses. The trouble in a large num- 
ber of states where they attempt and fail to enforce the Prohibitory Liquor Law 
is, that the penalties have not been adequate. This mistake has made it possible 
for violations of the law to continue with impunity. Disgrace is therefore 
heaped upon the system because the remedial character of the law is not sufficient. 

During the license days the saloon very largely controlled the politics of the 
territory. At that time we had one distillery and about eight or ten breweries in 
the territory now constituting North Dakota, all of which went out of existence 
with the advent of statehood. It should be remembered that we are largely en- 
gaged in raising cereals, which necessitates the incoming of a large horde of men 
during the harvest season. The rainy day was a serious problem to every farmer 
during the license period because at those times men would congregate in the 
little towns and villages, all of which had from two to ten saloons according to 
population. Business men were found to be friendly to the liquor interests and 
many of them were habitual drinkers. Stabbing affrays and murders were of 
frequent occurrence. Scant police protection could not afford relief. Court 
calendars were full of criminal business and the expense to the public was 
large. Business men were clamoring for no change, lest their sales would be 
injured, rents decreased and general stagnation follow. Young men grew 
up, feeling that the business of the saloonkeeper was respectable, and the open 
sesame to political preferment. In Fargo, with few exceptions, the followers of 
Blackstone, numbering about forty, were regular members of more than one 
bar. Many became habitual drinkers, and most of them were among the so- 
called moderate class. Six of the most brilliant now fill untimely graves — the 
direct result of the liquor habit. 

Now, exactly the reverse condition exists. In Cass, my home county, there are 
sixty-five men entitled to practice. All of our leading lawyers, with rare excep- 
tions, are total abstainers, and only three or four can be classed even as moderate 
drinkers. When we consider the influence which the lawyer can exert for good 
or evil, fortunate indeed is that community whose legal fraternity is composed 
of sober men. The sentiment of our business men has changed. They have 
found that money can be made without the help of the traffic. It is interesting 
to hear those who spoke loudest for the saloon now declare their opposition to 
its return. Indeed, they see and admit that conditions are better without than 
with the sale of intoxicating liquor; that rents have increased rather than dimin- 
ished, and general prosperity prevails. The saloon has itself to thank for much 
of the success attained by the prohibitionists. Liquor men here, as elsewhere, 
had respect for neither law, ordinary decency nor common sense. Their law- 



480 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

breaking proclivities disgusted the people, and many who primarily had little 
faith in the principle of prohibition, flew to it as a relief from what they regarded 
greater evils. Law enforcement has traveled its weary way from a frail be- 
ginning to a point where an enlightened public conscience demands of public 
oiificials a full discharge of their duty. Everywhere in the twelve judicial dis- 
tricts of the state come encouraging reports that the judges, sheriffs and prose- 
cuting officers do not wink at violations of law, and are positively and energet- 
ically attempting to stamp out crime. It is easily within the truth to say that 
in most of these districts the Prohibitory Law is as completely enforced as other 
criminal statutes, and in the others the difficulties of enforcement are fast 
passing away. When prohibition was adopted in North Dakota, we had a 
population of about 180,000. It was urged that if the prohibitory system was 
engrafted upon our statute books, the state would not develop. This state- 
ment, like others from the saloon source, has been shown to be untrue. We now 
have a population of about 700,000 and the per capita wealth of our people is 
approximately two thousand dollars — the highest of any state in the Union. 
South Dakota, when admitted to the Union, had something like 250,000 inhabitants. 
After having had prohibition for four or five years it returned to the license 
system. That state now has a population of less than 600,000. With us as 
the saloon interests decrease in a community the banks and trust companies 
increase. The last reports from our banking interests show a constant and 
healthy development, the aggregate deposits mounting up into the millions. 
Statements of the banks in Fargo alone show an aggregate of about $10,000,000. 
Fargo has grown from a city of 6,000 under the license system to one of 20,000 
under the prohibitory. It has all modern improvements like heat, water works, 
paved streets, street cars, electric lights and every convenience attendant upon 
city life. 

We have been pestered and annoyed by the shipping in of liquor from 
outside states under the interstate commerce laws. Since the passage of the 
Webb-Kenyon bill and the so-called Knox bill those evils are being reduced, 
but I am persuaded that the greatest relief will come to us by cleaning up in 
the last two weeks eighty-seven saloons, two breweries and twenty liquor dis- 
tributing agencies in Polk and Clay counties, Minnesota, just next to us on the 
east, under the recent county option law just passed by the Minnesota General 
Assembly. 

There was a time that North Dakota, with Maine and Kansas were the only 
prohibitory states in the Union. We felt quite lonesome then but the system 
was working so well and was so constantly gaining headway that we persuaded 
our people to remain in the prohibitory column. Thus we have been able to 
demonstrate the great possibilities for good following a dissolution of the partner- 
ship formerly existing between the state and the saloon. 

It may be urged that liquor is still sold in North Dakota and from that it 
will be concluded that the prohibitory system is a failure. No such conclusion 
should be drawn. While under the interstate commerce law it is lawful to ship 
into our state liquor for private use, yet the amount which can thus be brought 
to the people yearly is so small as compared with what would come to them if 
the license system prevailed that we ought to compare them only by way of 
contrast. Suppose it may be conceded that two or three million dollars worth 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 481 

of liquor was sold in the state of North Dakota coming from outside during the 
last year — a fact which we do not concede except for argument's sake — -what does 
that prove in view of the fact that if we had been a license state not less than 
twelve to fifteen million dollars' worth of liquor would have found its way into 
our state and been consumed by our people? 

I claim that that system of dealing with the liquor traffic is the best which 
will reduce the use and sale of liquor to the minimum. Purely from an economic 
standpoint therefore, leaving out all moral questions, we have present in the 
State of North Dakota a complete demonstration that the prohibitory system is 
the best for the reasons which have just been stated. If to this may be added 
the moral phases everywhere shown, we are then emboldened to state that 
the influence upon the rising generation, upon politics, and upon the people 
generally has been uplifting and wholesome in the extreme. 

Many of those who were most bitterly opposed to prohibition have been 
won over and are now planted firmly upon the side of the present system, con- 
vinced it is true against their will, but now firm in their new position because 
they cannot put aside what they see and know to have been fully demonstrated. 
They have in a large number of cases been manly enough to step forward and 
give utterance to the unshaken faith which they now possess. They declare that 
under no considerations ought we to permit the saloon to return within our 
borders. I have the written statement of most of our leading business men speak- 
ing from their view point of the beneficial effects of prohibition. Many of them 
were determined opposers of prohibition when it was adopted. Under these 
conditions it is the height of impudence for the liquor men to assert that our 
law has been a failure and therefore we ought to cause its repeal. If it is a 
failure it is because liquor has been sold in larger quantities and if that be 
true the vendors of such liquor do violence to their own interests by attempting 
to destroy such a valuable field in which to carry on their traffic. The simple 
answer is that prohibition has been a marvelous success. One method usually 
adopted by the liquor men in discussing the question is to find some spot in our 
state where law enforcement has not been very successful, exploit that through 
the press and insinuate that the whole state is like affected, therefore a failure. 
As well might you say that a person is a cripple and of no vital force, simply 
because upon one finger is a wart. The warts upon our body politic are fast dis- 
appearing, and if the people at large will pass the national constitutional amend- 
ment making it unlawful to manufacture and sell intoxicating liquors as a bever- 
age, we will then demonstrate to the people of this country that North Dakota 
will be among the very first to fully demonstrate the great blessings attendant 
upon living under the prohibitory system. One of the best results of prohibition 
in North Dakota has been that many persons who formerly sold liquor have been 
forced out of a bad business and are now respected citizens engaged in legitimate 
employments. Many such cases have occurred. I know one man who was about 
down and out when he was finally thrust out of the saloon trade — and today is 
probably worth over a half million dollars made in a legitimate business. Besides 
he has the respect and has been honored politically by his neighbors and friends. 
Big of heart, his hand is always open to aid the needy, and the greatest enjoyment 
comes to him in helping to advance the best interests of the state. In a private 
letter to me he said : "In response to what you ask about prohibition in our city 

Vol. 1—31 



482 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

(Fargo) and state, let me say that in my judgment it was a fortunate day when 
the prohibition law was adopted. When the question of changing from a license 
system to prohibition was first proposed in 1884, and for several years afterwards, 
I was bitterly opposed to prohibition, but I am now glad that the change was made 
and there is no man in the State of North Dakota that would fight the return of 
the saloon in any guise stronger than I would, should the occasion arise, and 1 do 
not believe the people of North Dakota will ever permit the saloon's return to our 
state." These words speak volumes. Where can the license system furnish such 
a fine example of redeemed manhood ? That system which makes men and places 
them where they and their farnilies can attain advancement, morally, intellectually 
and financially, ought to be preferred by every true lover of our republic. The 
success attendant upon the equitable remedies found in our law which results in 
closing the buildings where liquor is sold, for one year, has been turned with 
great force against gambling houses and the red light district. Like "blind pigs," 
they also are declared to be common nuisances and the buildings where the illegal 
traffic is carried on can be closed one year. 

Speaking with reference to my own district, may I say that during the terri- 
torial days there were about one hundred and fifty saloons, while now there are 
none and have not been for twenty-five years. For the past twenty years only 
occasionally do we find a blind pig, which is the colloquial name for the stationary 
place where liquor is sold and which under the law is called a common nuisance. 
They are now a thing of the past. We are troubled occasionally with bootleggers, 
but by the recent amendment making it a penitentiary offense for them to sell, that 
phase of violation is becoming rapidly reduced. Their work occurs mostly during 
the harvest season and is carried out by men who go through the country carrying 
in their grips liquor which they personally dispense to the harvest hands. The 
farmers, however, are constantly on the lookout and with the telephonic communi- 
cations which now exist, reports come in rapidly of such violations. When caught 
they rarely ever go to trial, but plead guilty at once and are sent immediately to 
the penitentiary. Twenty-five years under prohibition has brought to our people 
happiness and prosperity. It is unthinkable that we will ever retrace our steps 
upon this question. 

PROHIBITION A GOOD SAM.^RIT.^N 

The seamy side of the fur trade, the destruction of a noble race, and the bane- 
ful influence of the liquor traffic on humanity, has been brought out in glaring 
light in previous chapters. If the present world-war results in crushing the 
monstrous evil, the service to humanity will be worth its cost in blood and treasure. 

The evil may well be typified as a thief, or thieves, who rob men of health, sense, 
sanity, substance, and opportunity, leaving the victim on the side of the road from 
Purpose to Accomplishment, stripped of his possessions, wounded and half-dead. 

The incident referred to in St. Luke 10:30, illustrates the fate of many who 
visited Dakota towns in early days — brilliant men of talent, destined to shine in 
social, official or business life — and fell literally among thieves, who left them 
stripped, and in the condition of the unfortunate one found by the good Samaritan 
by the wayside. 

It was such incidents as these that brought prohibition into the constitution 
of North Dakota, and which have resulted in strengthening and perfecting the 
law, whenever the need has been developed. 



CHAPTER XXX 
THE PRESS OF NORTH DAKOTA 

BISMARCK TRIBUNE ESTABLISHED A SEVEN-COLUMN FOLIO FAIL TO BLUFF EDITOR 

BUSINESS WAS GOOD FARGO EXPRESS APPEARS OTHER PAPERS — GRAND 

FORKS HERALD THE PRESS IN 1882 PRESS OF 1886 — PAPERS OF 1884. 

BISMARCK TRIBUNE ESTABLISHED 

Col. Clement A. Lounsberry established the Bismarck Tribune, the first 
newspaper published in North Dakota, July 6, 1873, the second number appear- 
ing July nth and thereafter weekly without a break. Colonel Lounsberry had 
been employed as an editorial writer on the Minneapolis Tribune during the 
campaign of 1872 and through the following winter had reported the proceed- 
ings of the Minnesota Legislature for the Minneapolis Tribune and St. Paul 
Dispatch. 

In 1868 Colonel Lounsberry was county auditor of Martin County, Minn., 
and engaged in the publication of the Martin County Atlas when his attention 
was attracted to the Northern Pacific Railroad, and he determined to establish a 
newspaper at the Missouri River crossing when the road should reach that point. 

When the Southern Minnesota Railroad reached Wells he moved his paper 
to that point, where he published the Wells Atlas until 1872, when he accepted a 
position on the Minneapolis Tribune. 

In the winter of 1872-73 he met Dennis Hanafin at St. Paul, who gave him 
a clear and definite account of the situation at the crossing, and on the adjourn- 
ment of the Legislature he went to Fargo, reaching that point April 4, 1873. 
There was about a foot of snow at Fargo then, and nothing was doing on the 
Dakota extension beyond getting ready. He resumed his work on the Minneapo- 
lis Tribune till May, when he went to Bismarck, arriving there May 11, 1873. 
He completed his arrangements for the establishment of the Bismarck Tribune 
at that time and the material arrived by the first train in June, upon the comple- 
tion of the road to Bismarck. 

A SEVEN-COLUMN FOLIO 

On its first appearance the Tribune was a seven-column folio, well filled with 
advertising, every business concern, including saloons, dance and gambling halls 
and sporting houses of every class being represented in the advertising columns. 

Charles Lombard was foreman at the time the Tribune was established. Mark 
Kellogg, who represented the Bismarck Tribune and by arrangement through 

483 



484 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Colonel Lounsberry the New York Herald, on the Custer Expedition to the Big 
Horn and was slain with Custer and his men, assisted in the editorial work on 
the early numbers. Amos C. Jordan was also connected with the Tribune later 
in the season, and Theodore F. Singhiser was a contributor. Lounsberry being 
absent, Jordan and Singhiser were responsible for the articles which led to the 
midnight raid on Bismarck by members of the Seventh United States Cavalry, 
resulting in the death of Dave Mullen. 

Dave Mullen and Jack O'Neil were running a dance hall at Bismarck. There 
were several shooting scrapes at their place, some resulting fatally, and the 
Tribune editorially urged the formation of a vigilance committee to deal with the 
lawless characters, in the absence of any civil organization. 

FAIL TO BLUFF EDITOR 

Soon after the Tribune containing this article appeared both Mullen and 
O'Neil, heavily armed, approached the Tribune office. Colonel Lounsberry met 
them and said he had heard that they threatened to do some shooting on 
account of the Tribune's position; that if there was any shooting to be done the 
quicker it commenced the better it would please him ; that he had heard bullets 
fly before. They said they had come to talk it over; that they had been run out 
of several places and they had come to Bismarck determined to go no farther; 
that they expected to die right there and to die with their boots on ; that they 
looked upon every stranger as an officer hunting for them or as some one 
gimniiig for .them, and were determined that no one should get the drop on 
them; that this accounted for some of the shooting; that they would try to avoid 
any unnecessary trouble but did ask that the editor refrain from inciting attacks 
upon them, which they thought articles of that kind might have a tendency to do. 

The force of this argument was recognized. County organization followed 
in a few days and the evil was remedied to some extent. Both lost their lives 
as they had anticipated. Mullen was killed by the Seventh Cavalry which came 
in search of one accused of murder, when Mullen fired on them and was killed 
by a volley from the soldiers. O'Neil was killed later by "Paddy" Hall, who was 
lying in wait for him between two buildings. 

The Northern Pacific closed the road from Fargo to Bismarck during the 
winter of 1873-74, the last train leaving early in October. Colonel Lounsberry 
returned to Minneapolis to report the Minnesota Legislature for the Minneapolis 
Tribune and St. Paul Dispatch, editing the Bismarck Tribune by telegraph, sup- 
plying by that method his editorial matter and a weekly synopsis of the news. 
Nathan H. Knappen was left in charge of the paper. The quartermaster at 
Fort A. Lincoln supplied the Bismarck postofTice with mail. Colonel Lounsberry 
left Bismarck by team the latter part of November, paying $75 for a team to take 
him from Bismarck to Jamestown, where he borrowed a team from the quar- 
termaster at Fort Seward and drove on to Fargo, making the trip in six days. 
He carried the mail from Fort Lincoln to Fargo, and carried out a large amount 
of money to be expressed to the banks at St. Paul and Minneapolis, for the 
Bismarck merchants. 

There were no settlers then between Bismarck and Jamestown, none between 
Jamestown and Valley City, and none between Valley City and Mapleton. Winter 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 485 

stations had, however, been made in dugouts or in the railroad buildings, so that 
the trip was made in reasonable comfort. It required two days by rail to reach 
St. Paul from Fargo, trains then stopping over night at Brainerd. 

In 1874 George W. Plumley came to the Tribune, also from the Minneapolis 
Tribune, and had charge of its mechanical features for a time. E. W. Knight was 
with the Tribune three years following George W. Plumley. 

BUSINESS WAS GOOD 

There was no complaint as to a lack of business in 1873. The Tribune had a 
note of $400 due in St. Paul. Colonel Lounsberry collected enough on the way 
to St. Paul to pay the note and purchase a needed supply of stock and material. 

When the Tribune was established M. C. Russell of the Brainerd Tribune, 
E. B. Chambers of the Glyndon Gazette and their wives, and W. B. Nickles of 
the Red River Star at Moorhead, with his sweetheart, came to Bismarck to see 
that the Tribune was properly ushered into the world. George Alfred Townsend 
came to Bismarck in a few days and made the Tribune's advertising pages a 
feature in his letter to the Chicago Tribune. 

Marshall Jewell became interested in the Bismarck Tribune in 1878 with 
Stanley Huntley, of Spoopendyke fame, but their arrangement for the purchase 
failed and Mr. Jewell remained in charge of the job rooms until he became a 
joint owner with Mr. Lounsberry in 1881, in connection with the establishment 
of the Daily Tribune. 

Mr. Lounsberry remained with the Tribune until 1884, when he sold to 
Mr. Jewell and later established the Journal, which was run as a daily during 
the first legislative session. Mr. Jewell remained at the head of the Tribune 
until his death, February 9th, 191 1. 

In 1873 Moorhead was the big town on the line of the Northern Pacific 
west of Duluth. Brainerd had largely moved to Moorhead or the crossing of 
the Missouri. Northern Pacific Junction, once the metropolis, had become 
little more than a memory, and Oak Lake and other towns on the line had entirely 
disappeared. Fargo was platted in 1872 and the Headquarters Hotel was built, 
but it was on an Indian reservation, and made little headway in the direction of 
town building until 1874. Glyndon was then nearly a deserted city. 

E. B. Chambers had printed a few copies of the Fargo Express at Glyndon 
for A. H. Moore, with Capt. Scott Bonney editor, but it had not reached the point 
of being established as a North Dakota or Fargo newspaper, and was not 
regularly published. It was printed to show to the officers of the Wells Fargo 
Express Company that a paper had been established and to obtain a bonus. In 
this they succeeded and Mr. Fargo contributed $500 for the purchase of a print- 
ing press. 

FARGO EXPRESS APPEARS 

January i, 1874, the genuine Fargo Express made its appearance. It was 
edited and published by A. J. Harwood, Gordon J. Keeney and E. W. Knight. 
That was the first newspaper in North Dakota in the Red River Valley and the 
second in the state. P. P. Wall, of Audubon, was the printer who installed the 



486 EARLY HISTORY OF XORTH DAKOTA 

Fargo Express and gave Messrs. Harvvood, Keeney and Knight their first lessons 
as printers and in journaHsm. Mr. Knight completed his course of instruction 
in the art preservative on the Bismarck Tribune. 



OTHER PAPERS 



Later in 1874 A. J. Clark, from Wilton, Minnesota, established the Northern 
Pacific Mirror at Fargo. Messrs. Hubbard and Tylor became the owners of 
the Mirror and it was consolidated with the Fargo Express and Glyndon Gazette 
and became the Fargo Times, with E. B. Chambers editor. Chambers sold to 
E. D. Barker, and the Times was later consolidated with the Republican, estab- 
lished by Major A. W. Edwards and Dr. J. B. Hall about June, 187S, and the 
Republican later with the Forum. 

In 1875 George H. Walsh established the Grand Forks Haindealer, which 
became a flourishing newspaper under a varied management and was finally 
consolidated with the Grand Forks Herald. 

In 1875, when George Walsh established the Grand Forks Plaindealer, he 
made much of the fact that the Plaindealer was the only paper published north- 
west of Fargo. Winnipeg was then known as Fort Garry and Pembina was 
noted for being the oldest town in North Dakota and the head of the customs 
district, having a collector while St. Paul had only a deputy. 

In 1873 the Northern Pacific Railroad Company failed, bringing ruin to every 
interest dependent upon the successful construction of that railroad. A few 
farms were opened by keen-eyed speculators, who purchased the railroad lands 
with discredited railroad bonds, at a cost of about sixty cents an acre, gaining 
title to adjoining lands by methods which would not be permitted now by the 
United States Government ; or by the various forms of scrip then on the market 
at about one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. 

The Jamestown Alert was established by E. H. and C. H. Foster, July 4, 
1878, but had a precarious existence. It was suspended from July 17, 1879, till 
October 7th, of that year, when it was purchased by Marshall McClure, with 
financial assistance from E. P. Wells and J. J. Nierling. J. C. Warnock edited 
the Alert during the greater part of McClure's administration, until it was sold 
to W. R. Kellogg, March 6, 1886. Mr. Kellogg came to Jamestown from the 
Fargo Argus. Frank Tucker, a young lawyer, was associated with Mr. Kellogg 
for a few months. The Daily Alert was started February 14, 1881, and in the 
editorial announcement it was said: "Gentle reader, the Daily Alert is started to 
live," a prediction which proved true. It has never failed to appear excepting 
for a few weeks immediately prior to the sale to Kellogg. Warnock afterwards 
became associated with Will H. Burke in the publication of the Capital at James- 
town, established in February, 1882. R. W. Davidson, who was also associated 
with the Capital, was a son-in-law of J. C. Warnock. The publishers were after- 
wards Ellsworth & Davidson, later Ellsworth & Son, then Burgster & McElroy, 
who were the publishers when the state was admitted. It is printed daily and 
weekly. The German paper, Der Pioneer, established by A. Steinbach, at James- 
town, in 1883, published in the German language, was finally merged with a 
German paper at St. Cloud, Minn., and lost its identity. 

Major Alanson W. Edwards came to Bismarck in 1876 with Thomas C. Piatt 



,•1 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 487 

and Senator George Spencer of Alabama, and went to the Black Hills. He 
returned to Dakota in June, 1878, and determined to establish the Fargo Repub- 
lican. Returning to Chicago he associated himself with Dr. J. B. Hall and it was 
done. The Republican flourished for many years and was finally sold by J. J. 
Jordan to the Fargo Forum. Major Edwards remained with the Republican 
about one year, when he retired and established the Daily Argus, the first number 
of that publication appearing November 17, 1879. 

The Argus took the lead of all other North Dakota newspaper establishments 
and built up an enormous business, extending to Minnesota and South Dakota, 
as well as to North Dakota points, erecting an office which later became the 
Hotel Martin. Probably no paper has ever wielded or ever will wield a greater 
influence in the politics of a territory and state than that exercised by Major 
Edwards through the Argus in its early days. Major Edwards remained with 
the Argus until 1891, when it passed into other hands, as the major put it at the 
time, under circumstances over which he had no control. 

Retiring from the Argus in October Major Edwards and Horatio C. Plumley, 
who had been associated with him on the Argus, established the Fargo Forum, 
the first number of which appeared November 17, 1891, on the anniversary of the 
birth of the Argus. The Argus was never a paying venture after Major Edwards 
left it, and its bones now rest in peace, it having been sold to J. J. Jordan, who 
later established the Fargo Call, \\hich he conducted successfully several years, 
and then sold to others. 

There were many other newspaper ventures at Fargo, among them the Inde- 
pendent by C. A. Carson, which went into the Republican. The Evening Post, 
which was short lived, and the Moon and the Sun, and the Broadaxe. The Sun 
was published some ten years and was established by W. H. H. Matteson, sold to 
Fred Hendershot and finally died. Goldy West, at one time with the Argus, 
established the Sunday Bee. Its sweet life also passed away. 

GR.\ND FORKS HER-^iLD 

In 1879 George B. Winship established the Grand Forks Herald, which has 
flourished from the beginning, and has been a clean and reputable newspaper, and 
is now published as both a morning and evening daily. That year Dr. H. W. Coe, 
Sr., established the Northern Pacific Times at Valley City, H. H. Young the 
Pembina Pioneer, Harry Robinson the Mandan Criterion, Delaney & Herbert 
the Caledonia Times, E. K. Morrell the Wahpeton Gazette, C. Brandt the Fargo 
Posten, C. H. Lineau the North Dakota Basunen at Hillsboro, W. R. Maize the 
Washburn Times, and Frank M. Cornell the Tower City Herald. 

In 1880 the number of newspapers in Dakota had increased to 66 and in 
1881 to 75, and in June, 1884, the Bismarck Journal spoke of having 160 Dakota 
newspapers on its exchange list. In the spring of 1880 James A. Emmons estab- 
lished the Bismarck Sun and A. DeLacy Wood the Signal at Caledonia. The 
Sheldon Herald was established by O. E. Hogue and the Hillsboro Banner by 
E. D. Barker. 

M. Weisenberg established the Red River Posten. It passed into the hands 
of the Argus and John C. Miller became its editor. 

The Broadaxe was established in the early '80s by Captain Egbert and asso- 



488 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

ciates and hewed to the line regardless of where the chips might fall for a time, 
but passed on to that land whence there is no resurrection for defunct newspaper 
establishments. 

In 1881 Frank M. Winship established the News at Grafton; A. J. Smith the 
Times at Hillsboro; Chas. A. Everett the Star at Lisbon; F. H. Ertel the 
Pioneer, daily and weekly, at Mandan. The Eagle and Times was established at 
Mayville, the News at Acton and the Times at Grafton ; these two were con- 
solidated as the News and Times, and published by Upham & Winship ; R. D. 
Hoskins established the Bathgate Sentinel ; Burke & Saul the Jamestown Capital ; 
R. I. Smith the Mayville Tribune; E. L. Kilbourne the Casselton Reporter; and 
W. G. McKean the Sanborn Enterprise. 

THE PRESS IN 1 882 

January 26. 1882, the Bismarck Tribune said : "No better illustration can be 
given of North Dakota, and the general prosperity along the entire line of the 
Northern Pacific Railroad than to call attention to the daily newspaper estab- 
lishments. Three years ago there was not a daily newspaper on the line. In 
1880 Fargo was the first to come to the front in the establishment of the Daily 
Argus. Jamestown, not to be left in the matter of enterprise, next heralded the 
Daily Alert in the spring of 1881. Bismarck came in for the third place in 
April, 1881 (the Daily Tribune), followed by a second daily, the Republican, at 
Fargo, and the Daily Herald at Grand Forks. Duluth put in an appearance with 
the Tribune and a couple of months ago the Moorhead Daily Argonaut was 
born. Brainerd eyed jealously these institutions until last week when she, too, 
flaunted a daily to the breeze — the Tribune. Mandan will probably come in for 
the next position." And so it was, the Pioneer having been established that year. 
The papers established in 1882 were as follows: The Bismarck Herald, by 
the Herald Printing Company; the Fargo Evening Post, by Fox & Sanborn; 
the Northwestern Farmer, by Daily & Mann ; the Hamiltonian, at Hamilton, 
by Frank L. Mitchell ; the Pioneer, at Hope, by the Hope Printing Company ; 
the Pioneer, at Larimore, by Wm. Scott & Co., and the Leader, by E. J. Taylor; 
the Republican, at Lisbon, by W. R. Locke; the Inter-Ocean, at Mayville, by 
G. B. Thompson ; the Record, at Valley City, by Baxter & Davidson ; the Times, 
at Wahpeton, by C. P. Garred ; the Leader, at Ellendale, by Wesley Moran ; the 
Qipper, at Lisbon, by H. S. Harcourt; the Times, at St. Thomas, by J. P. 
Hager & Co., and the Republican, at Casselton, by Col. W. C. Plummer and 
S. J. Small. 

The newspapers established in 1883 were as follows : The Cooperstown 
Courier, by E. D. Stair; the Carrington News, by J. Moreley Wyard; the Devils 
Lake Inter-Ocean, by H. C. Hansbrough ; the Devils Lake Press, by A. M. 
Powell and H. M. Creel ; the Dickinson Press, by J. F. Scott ; the Jim River 
Journal, at Eaton, by C. H. Faulkner; the Ellendale News; the Fargo Sun; the 
Daily Broadaxe, at Fargo, by the Democratic Publishing Company ; the Garfield 
Gazette, by W. W. Gilbert; the Devils Lake Globe, at Grand Harbor, by Farrell 
& Wagner ; the Journal, at Grand Rapids, by Charles S. Cleveland ; the Herald, 
at Hudson, by Robert H. Busteed ; Der Pioneer, at Jamestown, by A. Stein- 
baugh ; the News, at Lakota, by the Winters Printing Company; the Commer- 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 489 

cial, at Keystone, by L. H. Wilson; the Chronicle, at LaMoure, by C. C. Bows- 
field, and the Progress, by W. G. .McKean ; the Mandan Times, by J. E. Gates ; 
the Medford Messenger, by W. H. Mitchell ; the Gapital, at Michigan, by W. 
Fowler; the Teller, at Milnor, by Falley & Goffin; the Forest River Journal, 
by L. M. Mitchell & Go.; the New Rockford Transcript, by Hays & Fanning; 
the Niagara Times, by E. E. Conwell; the Oriska Benefit, by G. H. Bassett; the 
North Dakota Farmer, by G. E. and W. H. Stone; the Ransom Gity Pilot, by 
F. G. Tuttle; the Steele Herald, by Britton & Beech; the Dawson Globe, by 
Harl J. Cook; the Devils Lake News, by Nadeau & Carrothers. The Commer- 
cial was moved to Ellendale and Joe Chappie was editing the Grand Rapids 
Journal and Frederick Adams was publishing the Gooperstown Courier; W. D. 
Bates established the Park River Gazette; W. H. Ellis and E. S. Gilbert, the 
Port Emma Times; Ellsworth & Son, the Forman Item; Ellis & Brown, the 
Ludden Times; Robert H. Busteed, the Oakes Herald. G. F. Garrette was run- 
ning the Washburn Times and H. G. Upham the Grafton News and Times. 

In 1884 there were lively times at Bismarck in the newspaper field. Bis- 
marck had been chosen the capital of Dakota, on which there was a hard fight 
by the South Dakota element. E. A. Henderson was rtmning the Evening Gapi- 
tal ; Colonel Lounsberry, the Journal ; F. D. Bolles, G. F. Garrette and B. Glid- 
den, the Leader; Palmer & LaShelle, the Advertiser, and J. A. Emmons, the 
Blade, and for a time during the period of Bismarck's prosperity the Tribune 
published both morning and evening editions, carrying the full Associated Press 
dispatches, and as a result of its aggressive work one after another of the opposi- 
tion went down and the Tribune was left alone in the field. 

In 1884, Farrell & Wagner moved their plant from Grand Harbor to Dun- 
seith and established the Dunseith Herald ; W. R. Bierly established the North- 
west at Grand Forks ; W. F. Warner, the Steele County Gazette ; A. T. Packard, 
the Bad Lands Cowboy, at Medora; F. G. Tuttle, the Free Press, at Milnor; 
J. W. Shepperd, the Dakota Siftings, at Minnewaukan; Grant S. Hager, the 
Tribune, at Neche; Jay Edwards, the Headlight, at Northfield; H. G. Macororie, 
the Pilot, at Stanton ; G. B. Vallandigham, the North Dakota Democrat, at 
Valley City; D. R. Streeter, the Emmons County Record; W. B. Kimball, the 
Yorktown Press; V. B. Noble and John W. Bennett, the Bottineau Pioneer; 
E. F. Sibley, the Towner County Tribune, at Gando ; H. P. Ufford, the Dakota 
Blizzard, at Gasselton; G. E. Stone, the Wheatland Eagle, and A. S. Bliton, the 
Wheatland Eagle. Rev. D. G. Plannette was publishing at Fargo the Pioneer 
Methodist. 

In 1885, the Sheldon Enterprise was established by Mrs. D. M. Hogue; the 
Turtle Mountain Times, at Dunseith, by Beckham W. Lair; the Hoskins Herald, 
by J. W. Kenagy; the Cavalier County Courier, at Langdon, by G. B. G. 
Doherty ; the Mandan Democrat, by Wm. Borgen ; the Dakota Bladet, at Port- 
land, by H. A. Foss; the Portland Inter-Ocean, by A. L. Hicks; the Steele Ozone, 
by E. S. Corwin; the Farmers' Alliance, at Valley City, by G. H. Bassett; the 
Mongo Star, by Rowe & Gordon; the Winona Times, by George J. Douglas; the 
Caledonia Times, by Dr. E. N. Falk. Col. C. W. Plummer was its editor for a 
time. 



490 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

PRESS OF 1886 

In 1886, the Ardock Monitor was established by J. K. Lyons ; the Churchs 
Ferry Sun, by S. A. Nye ; the Cooperstown Independent, by J. H. Vallandigham ; 
the Fort Abercrombie Scout, by F. I. Smith ; the Grand Forks Educational News, 
by A. B. Griffith; the Hamilton News, by McMillan & Muir; the Mcintosh 
County Democrat, at Hoskins, by Orth & Stone; the Inkster Review, by A. B. 
Smith; the Mouse River Advocate, at Minot, by Frank W. Spear; the Home- 
stead, Napoleon, by G. A. Bryant; the Milnor Rustler, by J. F. Bowins; the 
Sheldon Blade, by W. H. Milands ; the Wahpeton Globe, by H. W. Troy; the 
Willow City Eagle, by Jacob P. Hager; the Pembina County Democrat, at 
Bathgate, by Lee & Woolner; the Ashley Democrat, by Lowhead & Bjornson; the 
Burlington Reporter, by J. S. Colton, with C. O. Blair as editor; the Drayton 
Echo, by J. K. Fairchild; the Grand Forks Morning Leader, by W. M. Grant; 
the Hunter Eye, by Charles E. Stone ; the Lakota Observer, by Lampman & 
Kelly ; the Sergeant County Rustler, by W. L. Straub ; the Villard Leader, by 
R. H. Copeland. 

In 1887, the newspapers established were the Bottineau Free Lance, by J. B. 
Sinclair; the Edgeley Mail, by George B. Brown; the Fargo Churchman, by 
H. P. Lough ; the Normanden, Grand Forks, by H. A. Foss ; the Hillsboro Press, 
by C. D. and E. M. Baeher; the Lidgerwood Broadaxe, by Shelby Smith; the 
Minot Rustler-Tribune, by Marshall McClure ; the Rainey Buttes Sentinel, by 
M. L. Ayers ; the Oakes Republican, by W. H. Ellis ; the Rugby Advance, by 
David A. Briggs ; the Rutland Journal, by L. E. Williams ; the Rolette County 
Democrat, at St. Johns, by J. A. Minder; the Sherbrooke Tribune, by B. H. 
Simpson & Son ; the Spiritwood Bugle, by Eagan & Gleason ; the News & 
Stockman, at Towner, by Robert McComb ; the McLean County Mail, by J. E. 
Britton ; the Stark County Herald, at Dickinson, and the New Era, at New 
Rockford, by Canfield & Fanning. 

In 1888, the Independent was established at Forman by Wm. Hurle; the 
Harlem Courier, by C. E. Graber; the Langdon Democrat, by A. L. Koehnstedt; 
the Milton Globe, by Fred Dennett; the Turtle Mountain Star, at Rolla, by 
Parsons & Fritz ; the Sykeston Index, by Maddux & Dunn ; the Coggswell 
Expositor, by T. B. Hurley ; the Dawson Times, by the Times Publishing Com- 
pany. 

In 1889, the Williston Beacon was established by McGahn & Wilson ; the 
Reporter, at Minot, by A. B. Fuller and J. L. Colton; the Record, at Cando, by 
A. B. McDonald; the Independent, at Carrington, by H. A. Hogue; M. H. 
Brennan was publishing the Devils Lake News; McCuUy & Orswald established 
the North Dakota Advocate at Grafton ; F. W. Iddings, the North Dakota Pres- 
bytery at Grand Forks; W'm. Miller, the Graphic at Grandin ; the A f holds 
Basunen was established at Hillsboro ; the Leads News, by R. R. Bratton ; the 
Minot Journal, by McGahn & Wilson ; the Park River Witness, by J. Morely 
Wyard ; the Patriot, at Valley City, by G. B. Vallandigham. 

In 1890. A. B. Gray was publishing the Commonwealth at Bismarck; W. P. 
Mofifett, the Bismarck Settler; the Devils Lake Stats Tidne was established by 
John D. Sieverson ; the Fargo White Ribbon, by Anna S. Hill ; the Gilby Globe, 
by E. F. Rea: the Walsh County Record, by Pierce & Woods; the Common 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 491 

Schools, at Grafton, by A. L. Woods ; the Independent, at Grand Forks, by 
E. B. Saunders; the Manvel Graphic, by W. Brandgent; the Tower City Jour- 
nal, by Chas. S. Allen, and the Washburn Leader, by R. H..Copeland. 

Among the leading editorial writers in territorial days were "Pat'' Donan, 
the born boomer, and who lived to boom, and was usually employed by interests 
requiring booming in order to reach success, who was with the Fargo Argus 
about 1880. In his memorial to the Episcopal Convention at Philadelphia, in 
1884, Donan said: "In June, 1880, there were but ten weekly newspapers and 
one daily (in North Dakota) ; in June, 1883, there were eleven dailies, forty-two 
weeklies and six monthly publications, and new ones have been established at 
the rate of from one to three a week ever since, to supply the demands of an 
intelligent newspaper reading people daily growing in numbers." 

PAPERS OF 1884 

In 1884, the Bismarck Journal, edited by Colonel Lounsberry, said of the 
newspapers on its exchange list, then numbering 160, published in Dakota : 
"They present a remarkably neat appearance and in the main are ably edited 
by as loyal a set of fellows as ever boomed a new country." 

In territorial days the North Dakota press was united. There was little of 
personal controversy among the publishers or editors. They stood together for 
the common good, united in their labors for the development of North Dakota 
and for the division of Dakota and the establishment of a state from the northern 
part. 

At one time there seemed to be opposition in the northern part of the state 
to the admission of South Dakota, and from that day to this some members of 
the press have stood in a false light. The facts were these: In 1882, a con- 
vention met at Fargo, and named twenty-two delegates to go to Washington to 
labor for the division of Dakota. They chartered a Pullman car and went in 
a body. They gathered and published statistics and were making good head- 
way for the division of Dakota, when a delegation came from the southern part 
of the state with the Sioux Falls Constitution demanding the admission of 
South Dakota, relegating the governor and territorial officers to the northern part 
of the territory, but denying them a share in the name which North Dakota wheat 
fields had already made famous. They antagonized the division of Dakota 
unless it carried with it the admission of South Dakota as the State of Dakota. 
Both failed, and the North Dakota delegation went home declaring that there 
should be no division until both could come in as states, and that when they did 
come in North Dakota should be named first in the bill. And so it was. From 
that time on, for some time, the Bismarck Tribune carried the words "North 
Dakota" in its date line. 

NEWSPAPERS IN NORTH DAKOTA, DECEMBER 3O, I916 

LIST BY COUNTIES, WITH NAMES OF PUBLISHERS 

Adams. — Haynes Register Gazette, Haynes, Mary Mack; Adams County Record, Het- 
tinger, Record Printing Co.; Hettinger Journal, Hettinger, M. A. Fuller; Western Call and 
Reeder Times, Reeder, Fuller Printing Co. 

Barnes. — Daily Times-Record, Valley City, Greenwood & Houghtaling; Fingal Herald, 
Fingal, I R. Lisle; Hastings Times, Hastings, Ray P. Colburn; Kathryn Recorder, Kathryn, 



492 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Arthur Abrahamsen ; Litchville Bulletin, Litchville, Nelson & Jongeward ; Nome Tribune, 
Nome, Roy P. Allison; Rogers Citizen, Rogers, Leo Ratchiff; Sanborn Enterprise, Sanborn, 
William McKean ; North Dakota Patriot, Valley City, G. B. Vallandigham ; Valley City 
Courier, Valley City, P. R. Trubshaw; Weekly Times Record, Valley City, Greenwood & 
Houghtaling ; Wimbledon News, Wimbledon, A. F. Steffen ; Dazey Commercial, Dazey, Leo 
Ratcliff. 

Benson. — Brinsmade Star, Brinsmade, John Lindelien ; Esmond Bee, Esmond, H. P. 
Allison ; Knox Advocate, Knox, T. L. Delameter ; Leeds News, Leeds, Charles B. Dean ; 
Maddock Standard, Maddock, Standard Printing Co.; North Dakota Sittings, Minnewaukan, 
William Miller; Warwick Weekly Sentinel, Warwick, Francis Xavier Kirsch ; York Citizen, 
York, Andrew W. Mavis. 

Billings. — Fryburg Pioneer, Fryburg, Gerald P. Nye ; Billings County Herald, Medora, 
L. A. Warner. 

Bottineau. — Antler American, Antler, Walter R. Lee; Bottineau County News, Bottineau, 
F. C. Falkenstein ; Bottineau Courant, Bottineau, Bottineau Co-Op. Pub. Co.; Lansford Jour- 
nal, Lansford, Frank C. Nye; Maxbass Monitor, Maxbass, W. O. Hales; Omemee Herald, 
Omemee, Matt. Johnson; Overly News, Overly, Al. Van Dahl ; Russell Sentinel, Russell, 
J. H. Pittnian ; Souris Messenger, Souris, Souris Publishing Co. ; Westhope Standard, West- 
hope, A. J. Drake; North Dakota Eagle, Willow City, T. C. Michaels. 

Bowman. — Bowman Citizen, Bowman, George A. Totten, Jr. ; Bowman County Pioneer, 
Bowman, W. H. Workman ; Rhame Review, Rhame, H. N. Lynn ; Scranton Register, Scran- 
ton, Scranton Publishing Co. ; Gascoyne Gazette, Gascoyne, W. C. Smith. 

Burke. — Bowbells Tribune, Bowbells, B. A. Stefonowicz ; Columbus Reporter, Columbus, 
Harold B. Meyers ; Flaxton Times, Flaxton, Hoyt Brothers ; Lignite American, Lignite, Carl 
V. Torngren ; International, Portal, Hoyt Brothers ; Powers Lake Echo, Powers Lake, 
George B. Gee. 

Burleigh. — Bismarck Tribune, Bismarck. Tribune Publishing Co.; Staats .^nzeiger, Bis- 
marck, Bismarck Printing Co.; Baldwin Bulletin, Baldwin, F. Pfaff; Palladium, Bismarck, 
Palladium Publishing Co. ; Public Opinion, Bismarck, Northwestern Press Association ; 
McKenzie Gazette, McKenzie, C. W. Malmquist ; Regan Headlight, Regan, H. W. Walker ; 
Wing Statesman, Wing, C. A. Stratton. 

Cass. — Fargo Daily Courier-News, Fargo, Nonpartisan Publishing Co. ; Fargo Forum, 
Fargo, Forum Publishing Co.; Buffalo Express, Buffalo, J. U. Pavlik; Casselton Reporter, 
Casselton, Potter & Potter; Davenport News, Davenport, H. G. Broten ; Co-Operators Her- 
ald, Fargo, A. M. Baker and R. V. Fyles ; Fargo Blade, Fargo, J. J. Jordan ; Fargo Forum 
and Weekly, Republican, Fargo, Forum Publishing Co. ; Fram, Fargo, L H. Ulsaker ; Non- 
partisan Leader, Fargo, Herbert Gaston ; North Dakota Democrat, Fargo, George W. Wil- 
kinson; Search-Light, Fargo, L. H. Ulsaker and A. T. Cole; Hunter Herald, Hunter, F. O. 
Eberhardt; Kindred Tribune, Kindred, N. H. Johnson; Leonard Journal, Leonard, Victor 
E. Swanson ; Page Record, Page, W. L. Brown ; Tower City Topics, Tower City, George 
J. Heinze. 

Cavalier. — Calio News, Calio, Al Van Dahl ; Calvin Times, Calvin, G. D. Arnold ; Moon, 
Hannah, S. J. A. Boyd; Cavalier County Republican, Langdon, Forkner & Groom; Courier 
Democrat, Langdon, A. L Koehmstedt ; Milton Globe, Milton, Ernest L. Peterson; Munich 
Herald, Munich, Norris H. Nelson ; Osnabrock Independent, Osnabrock, W. J. Storie ; Sarles 
Advocate, Sarles, Carl L. George; Wales Progress, Wales, P. C. Glidden. 

Dickey. — Dickey County Leader, Ellendale, H. J. Goddard; Forbes Republican, Forbes, 
J. N. Nagel ; Monango Journal, Monango, J. H. Nagel and J. M. Field ; Oakes Journal, 
Oakes, Roy A. Bast; Oakes Times, Oakes, Alex R. Wright. 

Divide. — .'\lkabo Gazette, Alkabo, Simmons and Standeford; .Ambrose Tribune, Ambrose, 
A. L. De Witt ; Crosby Review, Crosby, W. H. Ware ; Divide County Journal, Crosby, Divide 
County Pub. Co.; Fortuna Leader, Fortuna, James B. Hedges; Noonan Miner, Noonan, 
Calvin L. Andrist. 

DuHii.— Dunn Center Journal, Dunn Center, C. J. Doherty; Spring Valley Times, Dunn 
Center, R. W. Robertson; Halliday Promoter, Halliday. T. Leroy Evans; Killdcer Herald, 
Killdeer, I. L. Doherty ; Killdeer Tribune, Killdeer, Charles E. Palmer ; Dunn County News, 
Manning, T. Leroy Evans ; Dunn County Settler, Manning. I. L. Doherty ; Werner Record, 
Werner, A. N. McDonald; Dodge Dispatch, Dodge, Ranney Publishing Co. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 493 

Eddy.— New Rockford State Center, New Rockford, New Rockford Pub. Co. ; Eddy 
County Provost, New Rockford, P. M. Mattson ; Transcript, New Rockford, A. C. Olsen ; 
Sheyenne Star, Sheyenne, C. C. Manning; Northwestern Agriculturist, New Rockford, 
Worst & Southard. 

£Mi»!0)i.f.— Braddock News, Braddock, F. B. Streeter; Emmons County Republican, 
Hazelton, Ralph C. Colburn; Emmons County Free Press, Linton, J. M. Stewart; Emmons 
County Record, Linton, F. B. Streeter. 

Foj/er.— Carrington Record, Carrington, H. C. Darland; Foster County Independent, 
Carrington, George P. Collins; Grace City Gazette, Grace City, J. D. Peterson; McHenry 
Tribune, McHenry, John B. Howard. 

Golden Valley. — Beach Advance, Beach, Charles L Cook; Golden Valley Chronicle, 
Beach, C. T. Bolstad ; Golden Valley Progress, Beach, Richard Bros. ; Sentinel Butte Repub- 
lican, Sentinel Butte, Walter A. Shear. 

Grand Forks. — Grand Forks Herald, Grand Forks, Grand Forks Herald Co. ; Grand 
Forks Independent, Grand Forks, Mrs. Alice Nelson Page ; Normandan, Grand Forks, P. O. 
Thorson ; Progressive Observer, Grand Forks, P. O. Thorson ; Weekly Times-Herald Grand 
Forks, Times-Herald Pub. Co. ; Inkster Enterprise, Inkster, William Roche ; Larimore, 
Pioneer Printing Co. ; Northwood Gleaner, Northwood, D. L. Campbell ; Reynolds Enter- 
prise, Reynolds, Kenneth B. Williams. 

Grant. — Carson Press, Carson, J. C. Bell; Elgin Times, Elgin, A. R. Knight; Leith Index, 
Leith, C. H. Samuelson; New Leipzig Sentinel, New Leipzig, Vitze & Williams; Raleigh 
Herald. Raleigh, Selnier H. Tovaas ; Shields Enterprise, Shields, F. A. Shipman. 

Griggs. — Binford Times, Binford, C. E. Peterson; Griggs County Sentinel Courier, 
Cooperstown, H. S. Rearick Publishing Co.; Hannaford Enterprise, Hannaford, P. A. Ander- 
son ; Sutton Reporter, Sutton, F. S. Marrs. 

Hettinger. — Bentley Bulletin, Bentley, Hazel Little; Burt Echo, Burt, Morton Little; 
American German, Havelock, J. N. Fulton ; Mott Pioneer Press, Mott, Elmer Enge ; Mott 
Spotlight, Mott, John T. Charmley; Hettinger County Herald, New England, Connolly Bros. ; 
Regent Times, Regent, Frank E. Ellickson. 

Kidder. — Pettibone Spectator, Pettibone, F. G. Jennings ; Robinson Times, Robinson, M. 
F. Flaherty; Steele Ozone, Steele, H. S. Wood; Tappen Journal, Tappen, H. S. Wood; 
Tuttle Star, Tuttle, Henry S. Wood ; Dawson Press, Dawson, B. G. McElroy. 

LaMoure. — Dickey Reporter, Dickey, H. D. Mack ; Edgeley Mail, Edgeley, W. S. Han- 
cock; Jud Leader, Jud, A. L. Ravely; Kulm Messenger, Kulm, Peterson Bros.; LaMoure 
County Chronicle, LaMoure, H. R. S. Diesem ; LaMoure Echo, LaMoure, C. C. Lowe ; 
Marion Sentinel, Marion, N. N. Hermann. 

Logan. — Burnstad Comet, Burnstad, Wm. L. Jackman ; Napoleon Homestead, Napoleon, 
O. F. Bryant ; Gackle Republican, Cackle, W. S. Hancock. 

McHenry. — Anamoose Progress, Anamoose, W. H. Sample ; Balfour Messenger, Balfour, 
Edwin J. Carlen ; Bantry Advocate, Bantry, Charles F. Varty ; Drake News, Drake, Edwin J. 
Carlen ; Granville Herald, Granville, C. R. Kendall ; Towner News-Tribune, Towner, D. R. 
Carlson ; Upham Star, Upham, C. C. Morrison ; Velva Journal, Velva, W. H. Francis ; Deer- 
ing Enterprise, Deering, Fred Roble. 

Mcintosh. — Ashley Tribune, Ashley, C. C. Lowe ; Wishek News, Wishek, German Amer- 
ican Print. Co. 

McKenzie. — McKenzie County Chronicle, Alexander, J. H. McGarry ; Arnegard Call, 
Arnegard, Mrs. Lee Jenkins; Charbonneau Herald, Charbonneau, A. M. Young; McKenzie 
County Journal, Charleson, S. Th. Westdal; Fairview Tribune, Fairview, C. H. Mumby; 
Grassy Butte Advertiser, Grassy Butte, Wm. Campbell Dennison; Rawson Tribune, Rawson, 
A. R. Jones; Schafer Record, Schafer, W. S. Graham; Watford Guide, Watford, W. S. 
Graham. 

McLean. — Benedict Banner, Benedict, W. T. Cooper; Dogden News, Dogden, E. E. 
Cowell ; Garrison Advance, Garrison, T. L. Stanley ; McLean County Independent, Garrison, 
Currier Bros.; Max Enterprise, Max, F. E. Wright; Mercer Telegram, Mercer, E. M. Plow- 
man ; Ruso Record, Ruso, E. E. Cowell ; Turtle Lake Wave, Turtle Lake, E. J. Jones ; Times, 
Underwood, John Satterlund ; Washburn Leader, Washburn, John Satterlund ; Wilton News, 
Wilton, G. W. Stewart. 



494 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Mercer. — German American, Golden Valley, L. E. Dreveskracht ; Hazen Star, Hazen, 
J. C. Schleppegrell ; Mercer County Republican, Stanton, C. F. Schweigert ; Stanton Post, 
Stanton, O. A. Schreiber; Zap Enterprise, Zap, Donald McCord; Beulah Independent, Beulah, 
A, D. Brown. 

Morton. — Mandan Daily Pioneer, Mandan, Pioneer Publishing Co. ; Flasher Hustler, 
Flasher, J. K. McLeod ; Glen Ullin News, Glen Ullin, Wallace R. Hall; Hebron Herald, 
Hebron, W. P. Thurston ; Hebron Tribune, Hebron, Geo. J. Landon ; Mandan News, Mandan, 
News Printing Co. ; Mandan Pioneer, Mandan, Pioneer Publishing Co. ; Mandan Repub- 
lican, Mandan, S. A. Young; New Salem Journal, New Salem, Edward Sullivan. 

Mountrail. — Mountrail County Herald, Blaisdell, Mrs. Katharine McCann; Palermo Inde- 
pendent, Palermo, S. B. Eidsmoe ; Parshall Leader, Parshall, David Larin ; Plaza Pioneer, 
Plaza, Geo. J. Smith ; Ross Valley News, Ross, John S. Patterson ; Sanish Pilot, Sanish, 
J. S. Patterson ; Sanish Sentinel, Sanish, C. .\. Pickering ; Mountrail County Promoter, Stan- 
ley, John S. Patterson ; Stanley Sun, Stanley, Geo. W. Wilson ; Van Hook Tribune, Van 
Hook, R. J. Kane ; White Earth Record, White Earth, Record Publishing Co. 

Nelson. — Aneta Panorama, Aneta, C. W. Baumann ; Lakota American, Lakota, John 
Stewart ; Nelson County Observer, Lakota, Frank Raft' ; McVille Journal, McVille, Harry 
M. Case; Michigan Arena, Michigan, P. M. Paulson; Pekin Budget. Pekin, E. C. Brekken; 
Tolna Tribune, Tolna, Harry M. Case ; Nelson County Record, Petersburg, George C. Reeder. 

Oliver. — Center Republican, Center, W. P. Thurston; Sanger .Advance, Sanger, William 
G. Bunde. 

Pembina. — Pink Paper, Bathgate, F. .\. Willson ; Cavalier Chronicle, Cavalier, J. K. 
Fairchild; Crystal Call, Crystal, J. A. Minder & Sons; Drayton Echo, Drayton, R. A. Gilroy; 
North Dakota Independent, Hamilton, H. P. Wood ; Ncche Chronotype, Neche, R. H. Fadden 
& H. M. Young; Pioneer E.xpress, Pembina, Wardell & Thompson; St. Thomas Times, 
St. Thomas, Grant S. Hager ; Walhalla Mountaineer, Walhalla, Chas. H. Lee. 

Pierce. — Pierce County Tribune, Rugby, L. H. Bratton; Wolford Mirror, Wolford, 
Breen & Breen. 

Ramsey. — Devils Lake Journal, Devils Lake, J. H. Bloom; Churchs Ferry Sun, Churchs 
Ferry, C. E. Harding; Crary Public Opinion, Crary, Edgar Anderson; Devils Lake World, 
Devils Lake, E. M. Crary; Edmore Herald News, Edmore, Hugh Wells; Hampden Guardian, 
Hampden, Fred H. Rieger ; Lawton Republican, Lawton, S. T. Scott ; Starkweather Times, 
Starkweather, Rilie R. Morgan. 

Ransom. — Enderlin Independent, Enderlin, C. H. Potter ; Lisbon Free Press, Lisbon, 
Boyden Bros. ; Ransom County Gazette, Lisbon, William M. Jones, Jr. ; Sheldon Progress, 
Sheldon, Wanzo M. Shaw. 

Renville. — Glenburn .'\dvance, Glenburn, R. Gilbertsen ; Grano Tribune, Grano, Carl Carl- 
son ; Mohall Tribune News, Mohall, Charles Lano ; Sherwood Tribune, Sherwood. E. L. 
Penn ; ToUey Journal, Tolley. Swanson & Scott. 

Richland. — Abercrombie Messenger, .'\bercrombie, H. Squires and W. L. Hanson ; Fair- 
mount News, Fairmount, B. W. Clabaugh ; Hankinson News. Hankinson, W. C. Forman, Jr. ; 
Lidgerwood Broadaxe, Lidgerwood, J. E. Melton ; Lidgerwood Monitor, Lidgerwood, W. I. 
Irvine; Globe Gazette, Wahpeton, R. N. Falley; Wahpeton Times, Wahpeton, E. S. Cam- 
eron ; Walcott Reporter, Walcott. Richard N. Lee ; Wyndmere Pioneer, Wyndmere, H. E. 
Sievert. 

Rolette.—'Dunsehh Magnet, Dunseith. D. Dwight Hargreaves ; Rolette Record, Rolette, 
Chas. W. Sibley; Rolette County Herald, Rolla, W. D. Packard; Turtle Mountain Star, 
Rolla, W. J. Hoskins ; Saint John Leader, Saint John, Chas. R. Lyman. 

.S'ar(7CHf,— Cayuga Citizens, Cayuga, Charles O. Weston ; Cogswell Enterprise, Cogswell, 
Charles A. Jordan; Forman Independent News, Forman, Jay H. Maltby; Prairie Press, 
Gwinner, H. C. Edblom ; Havana Union, Havana, George & Simpson ; Sargent County Teller, 
Milnor, John Edstrom and Nels Nelson. 

^/imdan.— Goodrich Weekly Citizen, Goodrich, A. D. McKinnon ; McClusky Gazette, 
McClusky, Ed. X. Moore; Sheridan Post, McClusky, T. D. Monsen ; Searchlight, Martin, 
J. M. Smith ; Denhoff Voice, Denhoff, George Thorn, Jr. 

.9iVM.r.— Sioux County Pioneer, Fort Yates. C. Christenson. 

Slope. — Slope County News, Amidon. Connolly Bro?. ; Mineral Springs Tribune, Mineral 
Springs, George T. Dollard ; Marmarth Mail, Marmarth, James H. Cramer. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 495 

Stark. — Belfield Times. Belfield, Harry Dence : Dickinson Press, Dickinson, Ernest L. 
Peterson; Nord Dakota Herold, Dickinson, John Nadolski; Recorder Post, Dickinson, S. C. 
Barnes; Der Volksfreund, Riclnardton, Bernhard Arnold; Taylor Reporter, Taylor, J. L. 
Strang. 

Stcclc.—Hope Pioneer, Hope, L, J. Bowen ; Luverne Ledger. Liiverne, J. Earl Fladeland ; 
Sharon Reporter, Sharon, S. Malmin ; Steele County Tribune. Sherbrooke, S. V. Anderson; 
Finley Beacon, Finley, G. A. Monteith. 

Stutsman. — Jamestown Daily Alert, Jamestown, Alert Pablishing Co.; Jamestown Daily 
Capital, Jamestown, Jesse B. Burgster ; Stutsman County Leader, Cleveland, Hugh Osborne ; 
Courtcnay Gazette, Courtenay, A. F. Klenk; Jamestown Weekly Alert, Jamestown, Alert 
Publishing Co. ; North Daktoa Capital, Jamestown. Jesse B. Burgster ; Stutsman County 
Democrat, Jamestown. M. P. Morris; Kensal Progress, Kensal, W. T. Wasson; Medina 
Citizen, Medina. W. H. Nye; Montpelier Magnet. Montpelier, G. A. Weston; Pingree Patriot, 
Pingree, O. A. Ruud ; Streeter Herald, Streeter, W. D. Putnam ; Woodworth Rustler, Wood- 
worth, Will H. Wright. 

Tozvncr. — Bisbee Gazette, Bisbee, J. M. Gores and A. Egeland; Cando Herald, Cando, 
George B. Denison ; Cando Record, Cando, E. W. Spencer ; Hansboro News, Hansboro, D. D. 
Finley; Egeland Enterprise, Egeland, M. O. Long. 

Traill. — Hatton Free Press, Hatton, Hatton Printing Co. ; Hillsboro Banner. Hillsboro, 
L. E. George; Mayville Tribune-Farmer, Mayville, E. D. Lum; Portland Republican, Port- 
land. Portland Printing Co. ; Buxton Outlook, Buxton, J. G. Curtis. 

IValsli. — Adams Standard. Adams, M. C. Lovestrom ; Edinburg Tribune. Edinburg, G. S. 
Breidford ; Fairdale Times. Fairdale, Fred A. Callis ; Fordville Chronicle. Fordville, Sam. S. 
Haislet; Grafton News and Times, Grafton, R. P. Luchau ; Walsh County Record, Grafton, 
Grant S. Hager ; Park River Gazette News, Park River, Frank J. Prochaska ; Park River 
Herald, Park River, A. C. Thompson; Lankin Reporter, Lankin, Howard Africa; Minto 
Journal, Minto, W. G. Mitchell. 

Ward. — Minot Daily News, Minot, Optic-Reporter Publ. Co. ; Berthold Tribune, Berthold, 
W. E. Krick ; Carpio Free Press, Carpio, M. J. Pavlik ; Hartland Herald, Carpio, M. J. Pav- 
lik; Des Lacs Observer, Dec Lacs, T. M. Filbert; Donnybrook Courier. Donnybrook, H. E. 
Johnson ; Douglas Herald. Douglas, Ira F. Surber ; Kenmare Journal, Kenmare, W. B. 
McLaughlin ; Kenmare News. Kenmare. V. A. Corbett ; Makoti Sentinel. Makoti, Thos. 
Buchanan ; Messenger. Minot. L. D. McGahan ; Ward County Independent, Minot, Truax & 
Colcord ; Ryder News and Times, Ryder, O. H. Lomen ; Sawyer Telegraph, Sawyer, D. R. 
Green. 

Wells. — Wells County Free Press. Fessenden, C. M. Brinton ; Harvey Herald and Adver- 
tiser, Harvey, C. B. Thomas ; Harvey Journal, Harvey, J. F. Richards ; Hurdsfield Herald, 
Hurdsfield. A. U. Jackson ; Sykeston News, Sykeston, C. L. Covell ; Bowdon Guardian. Bow- 
don, Wilford J. Burt. 

Williams. — Alamo Farmer. Alamo, Alamo Publishing Co.; Grenora Examiner. Grenora, 
P. O. Howard. John N. Page; Grenora Gazette, Grenora, P. O. Howard. Nels Olesen ; Ray 
Pioneer, Ray, Edwin J. Knudson ; Tioga Gazette, Tioga, H. F. Irwin ; Wildrose Plainsman, 
Wildrose, Frank Rodgers ; Williams County Mixer. Wildrose, F. E. Stefonowicz ; Williston 
Graphic, Williston, John A. Corbett; Williston Herald. Williston. George Parries; Zahl 
Booster, Zahl, Zahl Publishing Co. ; McGregor Herald. McGregor, Frank Rodgers. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

NAMING NORTH DAKOTA COUNTIES 

The Legislature of 1873 divided Pembina and Buffalo counties, and named 
the several counties in North Dakota largely in honor of the old settlers. Pem- 
bina, the original, was so called by reason of the highbush cranberries growing 
on the Pembina mountains. Enos Stutsman was representative from Pembina in 
the Legislature, and, upon going to Yankton, which was then the capital of Da- 
kota, spent a night at the home of Morgan T. Rich, the first settler at Wahpeton, 
and they then agreed upon the principal names. 

Barnes — For Judge, Alanson H. Barnes, associate justice, Dakota territor)-, 
1873 to 1881. The county was named Burbank by the legislature of 1873, in 
honor of John A. Burbank, Governor of Dakota, 1869 to 1874. Burbank, in order 
to remove Judge Barnes from dominating political influence in the southern part 
of the territory, assigned him to the northern district, and a later legislature 
changed the name of the county to Barnes, in order to punish Burbank. 

Billings — For Hon. Frederick Billings, president of the Northern Pacific Rail- 
road Company, holding extensive landed interests in Burleigh and other western 
counties in North Dakota. 

Bottineau — For Pierre Bottineau, one of the old-time voyageurs, born in 
North Dakota wher^ he spent over eighty years of his life. 

Bowman — For Hon. E. M. Bowman, a member of the Legislature of 1883. 

Burleigh — For Walter A. Burleigh, Indian trader and agent, delegate to Con- 
gress and contractor for the construction of fifty miles of the Northern Pacific 
Railroad east from Bismarck. 

Cass — For George W. Cass, president of the Northern Pacific Railroad, iden- 
tified with P. B. Cheney in the developmeiU of the Dalrymple and other farms in 
North Dakota. 

Cavalier — For Charles Cavileer, the first white settler in North Dakota, who 
settled at Pembina in 1851, where he died after more than fifty years residence 
in the Red River Valley. His wife was a granddaughter of Alexander Murray, 
one of the original Selkirk settlers, and a survivor of the Seven Oaks massacre. 
He was collector of customs at Pembina and postmaster for many years. 

Dickey — For Hon. Alfred Dickey, of Jamestown, identified with the early 
history of North Dakota and later lieutenant governor. 

Dunn — For John P. Dunn, one of the earliest settlers of Bismarck, where he 
was engaged in the drug business for many years. 

Emmons — For James A. Emmons, post trader at Camp Hancock, established at 
Bismarck in 1872, and for many years identified with the development of Bur- 
leigh County. 

496 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 497 

Eddy — For E. B. Eddy, founder of the First National Bank at Fargo and 
for many years an active factor in the development of the Red River Valley, 
and an active force in the upbuilding of Fargo. 

Foster — For James S. Foster, who settled in South Dakota in 1864 in con- 
nection with the New York colony from Syracuse, New York. In 1871 he was 
appointed commissioner of immigration and devoted his life to Dakota interests. 

Grand Forks — On account of the confluence of the Red Lake and Red rivers 
at Grand Forks. 

Griggs — For Captain Alexander Griggs, founder of Grand Forks and iden- 
tified with the earliest navigation of the Red River. 

Hettinger — For a distinguished citizen of Freeport, III., father of the wife 
of Hon. E. A. Williams of Bismarck. 

Kidder — For Hon. Jefferson P. Kidder, identified with the interests of Da- 
kota from 1858 until his death. Through the support of the North Dakota delega- 
tion he was nominated for Congress in 1874, and served four years as delegate 
to Congress. He served as associate justice from 1865 to 1875 and from 1878 
to 1883. 

Lamoure — For Hon. Judson LaMoure who came to Dakota in i860. He was 
elected to the Legislature in 1866, but refused to take his seat. He came to what 
is now North Dakota in 1870 and was elected to the Legislature in 1872, and has 
seen almost continuous service in the Legislature since that time. No citizen of 
North Dakota has left his mark on so many pages of its history as he. He was 
interested in merchandising and in the agricultural development as well as in its 
political affairs. 

Logan — For Gen. John A. Logan. 

McHenry — For Hon. James McHenry of Clay County, South Dakota. 

Mcintosh — For E. H. Mcintosh, a member of the council in 1883. 

McKenzie — For Alexander McKenzie of Bismarck, the most prominent and 
influential citizen of North Dakota in the construction period of its existence. 
(See the chapter headed, Division of Dakota.) Whatever may be said of him 
it must be said that he has never used his political powers for his own advantage 
either financially or politically. For several years he was the national committee- 
man of the republican party from North Dakota. 

McLean — For Hon. John A. McLean, then mayor of Bismarck. He was a 
contractor for ties and other material on the construction of the Northern Pacific 
Railroad west from Duluth, and of the firm of McLean & Macnider, general mer- 
chants and contractors at Bismarck. In January, 1876, a committee sent from 
Bismarck to the Black Hills, headed by H. N. Ross, who had accompanied the 
Custer expedition to the Black Hills the preceding summer, returned with many 
specimens of gold taken from the placer mines of the Black Hills. These speci- 
mens were regarded as so convincing as to settle the long mooted question as to 
whether there was any gold in paying quantities in the Black Hills. Mr. 
McLean and Colonel Lounsberry at once proceeded to Washington, conferring 
en route with the Chamber of Commerce at St. Paul, resulting in the organiza- 
tion of the Northwestern Stage & Transportation Company, which established 
a daily line of stages and means of transportation from Bismarck to the hills, and 
with the managers of the Northern Pacific, Milwaukee & St. Paul, and the 
Northwestern railroads relative to through rates for passengers and freight to 



\ 



498 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

the hills. At Washington they were received by President Grant, Secretary of 
War Belknap, and on the floors of both the Senate and House of Representatives. 
As a result President Grant directed that there should be no further interference 
with miners then in the Black Hills or en route there, and Congress took early 
action toward opening a large portion of the great Sioux reservation to settle- 
ment, including the Black Hills. 

Mercer — For William H. H. Mercer, who settled at Painted Woods, Burleigh 
County, on the Missouri River, in 1869, and remained until his death, identified 
mth the farming and stock growing interests of Burleigh County. He was a 
member of the First Board of County Commissioners of Burleigh County. 

Morton — For Hon. Oliver P. Morton, war governor of Indiana. 

Nelson — For Hon. N. E. Nelson, an early settler of Pembina, who entered 
the first homestead made of record in North Dakota. Collector of customs at 
Pembina for many years. Member of the Legislature. 

Oliver — For Hon. Henry S. Oliver, member of the Legislature of 1885, and 
thereafter a leading factor in the politics of the territory and state, and post- 
master at Lisbon. 

Pierce — For Hon. Gilbert A. Pierce, governor of Dakota and United States 
senator. It was changed from Church to Pierce, having been first named for 
Governor Church. 

Ramsey — For Hon. Alexander Ramsey, governor of Minnesota, United 
States senator, secretary of war. He introduced the first bill in the senate for 
the Territory of Pembina. 

Ransom — On account of Fort Ransom, named for General Ransom, a dis- 
tinguished soldier. 

Richland — For Hon. M. T. Rich, a settler of 1869 at Wahpeton, and because 
it embraced a land that was rich indeed. Mr. Rich visited the Red River Valley 
in 1864, in connection with Sully's expedition, passing on west to the gold 
regions. 

Sargent — For H. E. Sargent, general manager of the Northern Pacific Rail- 
road, interested in the development of the agricultural interests of the Red 
River Valley. 

Stark — For George Stark, general manager of the Northern Pacific Railroad, 
owner of the Stark farm, near Bismarck, opened to demonstrate the fertility and 
adaptability of the Missouri River region to general farming. 

Steele — For Franklin Steele, an early trader at Fort Snelling, and later a 
distinguished citizen of Minneapolis, associated with the early promoters of 
Hope, who made large investments in that vicinity. 

Stutsman — For Hon. Enos Stutsman, who was born in Ohio, taught school 
and studied law at Des Moines, Iowa, settled at Yankton in 1858, a member of 
the first Legislature in 1862; came to North Dakota as a special agent of the 
treasury department in 1864, when he was elected to the Legislature from Pem- 
bina County and thereafter until his death identified with North Dakota, render- 
ing distinguished service. 

Towner — For Hon. O. M. Towner, founder of the Elk Valley farm in Grand 
Forks County, and a member of the Legislature of 18S3. 

Traill — For Walter J. S. Traill, an employe of the Hudson's Bay Company, 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 499 

located in early days at Caledonia and identified with the early development of 
Traill County. 

Walsh — For Hon. George H. Walsh. His father, Thomas Walsh, located 
at Grand Forks in 1871. George H. was president of the council in the Legis- 
lature of 1881, and of the council in 1883, 1885 and 1889, and of the North 
Dakota Senate after statehood. 

Wells — For Hon. E. P. Wells, a member of the Legislature of 1881, identified 
with the development of Jamestown and the James River Valley. 

Ward — For Hon. J. P. Ward, a member of the Legislature of 1885, an active 
friend of North Dakota at that session, though from South Dakota. 

Williams — Changed entirely from its original position. Named for Hon. 
E. A. Williams, who came to Yankton about 1869, and to Bismarck in 1872 as 
an employe of Walter A. Burleigh in connection with his contract for the con- 
struction of fifty miles of the Northern Pacific Railroad east from Bismarck. 
He was elected a member of the Legislature that fall and from 1873 forward 
has been identified with North Dakota interests. He has been in the Legislature 
several times, twice speaker, which position he occupied in 1883, the history- 
making session, so far as the interests of North Dakota were connected with 
the affairs of the whole territory. He was a member of the Constitutional Con- 
vention and surveyor general, and has taken a prominent part in the political 
conventions of the republican party. 

Cavalier, Rolette, Bottineau, McHenry, Ramsey, Foster, Logan, Morton, 
Mercer, Williams, Grand Forks. Cass, Richland, Burbank (now Barnes), Gin- 
gras (now Wells), Lamoure, Stutsman, Ransom, Kidder and Burleigh were 
created by the Legislature of 1873. Benson, Bowman, McLean, Mcintosh, Nel- 
son, Sargent, Steele and Towner by the Legislature of 1883. Walsh was created 
in 1881. Dickey, Emmons, Hettinger, Billings, Dunn, Stark, Oliver. Ward and 
McKenzie were creations incident to other legislative sessions. 

The counties created since the Legislature of 1873 and the names are of later 
date than the conference with Mr. Rich, but the original nomenclature comes 
from that visit of Stutsman to Rich. Hon. Judson Lamoure was also con- 
sulted and he, too, had a hand in giving the first as well as the later creations 
their names. The same is true of E. A. Williams, a member of the Legislature 
which made the first division. 

Mountrail was named for a prominent half-blood family, descendants of 
Joseph Mountrail, an early voyageur. 

Renville was named for Joseph Renville, trader, interpreter, mentioned in 
connection with the translation of the Bible and other important matters. 

Adams County for Hon. R. S. Adams of Lisbon, a prominent financier and 
distinguished citizen. 

Divide County, from the division of Williams County. 

Grant County, from a division of Morton County, in November, 1916, for 
the illustrious Gen. U. S. Grant. 

Burke County, for Hon. John Burke, a democrat, three times elected gov- 
ernor by republican votes, and United States treasurer under President Wood- 
row Wilson. 

Sheridan County, for Gen. Philip Sheridan. 



500 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Golden \'alley, from the western part of Billings County, for the rich valley 
and bench lands so well adapted to the growth of golden grain. 

Slope County, southern part of Billings, from being on the eastern slope of 
the Missouri River valley, which rises in altitude from 1644 feet at Mandan to 
2830 at the summit in Billings County. , 

Sioux, embracing that portion of the Great Sioux Reservation in ' North 
Dakota. 




NORWEGIANS DANCING, NEAR RED RIVER IN ABERCROMBIE 




GIRLS IN NORWEGIAN PEASANT DRESS, ABERCROMBIE 



CHAPTER XXXII 
STORIES OF EARLY DAYS 

WINSHIP HOTEL BUDGE's TAVERN AN ENTERTAINING STORY OF YE OLDEN TIMES 

IN NORTH DAKOTA 

When Pembina was little, before Grand Forks, Fargo and Moorhead were 
born, George B. Winship strayed in from the south via Abercrombie, and Billy 
Budge from Scotland via Hudson's Bay, and meeting at Pembina in 1871, where 
George was engaged as a clerk in the sutler's store, they concluded to form a 
partnership and enter into business. They selected a point on the stage line 
between Grand Forks and Pembina knov/n as Turtle River, where they erected 
a log cabin and put in a little stock of those things essential to life for man and 
beast and opened up a hotel. The old-timers all credit them with having kept 
an excellent stopping place, one of the best on the line, and both were popular 
and have since prospered in this world's goods. Winship established the Grand 
Forks Herald, represented the Grand Forks District in the State Senate several 
terms, and on his retirement went to California where he enjoys a fortune from 
the proceeds of well used opportunities in North Dakota. 

William Bvidge was a member of the constitutional convention and also rep- 
resented his district in the State Senate several terms, was the leading spirit in 
the establishment of the State University, and was one of its regents for several 
years, and postmaster at Grand Forks, moving later to Medford, Ore., where he 
became one of the leading business men of Jackson County, and always the 
true and noble hearted man he was in the early days of North Dakota. 

The following, condensed from Clarence Webster's story in the Chicago Inter 
Ocean in 1886, will be enjoyed by their friends : 

"After erecting their cabin, which was the only human habitation in 1871 
between Grand Forks and Pembina, unable to agree on the name for their place, 
as the stOT}' runs, they agreed to label it '\\'inship's Hotel,' so as to meet the 
view of those coming from the south and that 'Budge's Tavern' should be the 
sign displayed for the observation of those coming from the north. Thev dis- 
agreed in many things but united in one, 'We are not here for our helth,' was 
to be conspicuously printed on a card to be hung on the wall over the fireplace. 
'God Bless Our Home,' and others of that nature were not fashionable then. 
The early settlers were the practical sort of fellows, who believed in informing 
people just where they were at and what was expected of them. 

"Budge was an expert in turning the flapjacks while Winship was equally 
good as a valet de chambre at both house and barn. Budge assisting however 
between meals. Both were excellent collectors and usually insisted that there 

501 



502 EARLY HISTORY OF \ORTH DAKOTA 

must be an understanding as to the pay before any of the supphes had been con- 
sumed. It is said they each warned the travelers not to pay the other, resulting 
in occasional loss on the grounds that it was unsafe to pay either. They had a 
monopoly and like all monopolists were independent and when there were any 
objections to paying $2 for flapjacks a la Budge and stable accommodations a la 
Winship the unfortunate objector was invited to read the card over the fireplace 
and move on. Sometimes Budge suggested that the man who objected to paying 
$1 for a white man's meal could fill up on marsh hay at half price. 

"It sometimes happened that objections were made to the economical spelling 
of the word health in the sign upon the wall. If the kick was made to Budge he 
added a half to the bill for extras. If it was commented on before Winship, 
with great presence of mind he always remarked that the proofreader must have 
been drunk as usual when they went to press with it. 

"Neither proposed to allow the other to get ahead of him. They made a 
nightly division of the cash and had a definite understanding as to the division of 
labor. Each in turn was to build the fires, and in order that there might be no 
mistake they arranged a calendar and pasted it at the foot of the bed. Com- 
mencing with B. W. B., alternating with G. B. W., there were thirty sets of 
initials, representing each day in the month. When Winship had built the fire he 
rubbed out the last initial and Budge did the same when it came his turn. The 
crossed letter always settled the question as to who was to get up next time and 
indicated the day of the month. 

"One morning Budge got up and built the fire cancelling the B. It was a roar- 
ing fire, made especially for a temperature of 30 below. The frail chimney, built 
of sticks and mud. surmounted by a barrel, caught fire. Soon the fire spread until 
W'inship's end of the building was burning at a lively rate. Winship poked his 
elbow in Budge's side, he having fallen asleep, who thinking a mule had kicked 
him, yelled, 'Whoa.' Another nudge partially awakened him, when Winship 
said, 'Billy, she is afire again.' Budge protested that he had spoiled the slickest 
dream he had ever had and that he would have had it all fixed in a minute more 
if he had been left alone, besides he didn't see why he should be disturbed. He 
wanted to sleep. 

" 'The fire is spreading,' said Winship. 'Better get up and put it out while 
you can do it easy. It is your turn to get up.' 

" 'It ain't my time to get up,' said Budge. 'The B. is crossed out.' 

" 'It is your fire,' said Winship, 'you built it, you had better put it out. It's 
getting too hot.' 

"Budge insisted that the fire was Winship's by right of discovery and he 
must take care of it. 

"Higher leaped the flames, closer and closer they came to the Scotchman, 
who was still insisting upon his rights to sleep undisturbed after building the 
fire. His own part of the shanty was ablaze. Coals were dropping down on the 
robes under which they had been sleeping. Winship drew the robe over his 
head. 

"Finally Budge proposed that they both get up. 'That is reasonable,' replied 
Winship. 'Why didn't you think of that before?' 

"They both got out. Some of the bacon and other things were saved. 

"By this time Grand Forks had begun to grow. Both went to the Forks and 
■entering on separate lines succeeded in business. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 503 

"Winship sometimes undertakes to tell the story and Budge tries to correct 
the proof, but giving up in despair, simply writes on the margin, 'there are other 
liars in the valley besides yourself.' " 



THE OLD-TIME POSTOFFICE AT PEMBINA 

(By Charles Cavileer) 

"I came here (Pembina) in 1851, in company with N. W. Kittson and others. 
After being here a few days Mr. Kittson asked me to act as assistant postmaster, 
he having been appointed postmaster some time in 1849. Joseph R. Brown was 
contractor to carry the mail from Pembina, Wisconsin Territory, to Crow Wing 
in the same territory, via Thieving River, at its mouth at Red Lake River, thence 
by land and canoe to Red Lake Village, making short portages, thence making 
short portages between small lakes to Cass Lake and then by the same order of 
travel to Leach Lake and so on to Crow Lake and to the end of the route at Crow 
Wing Village, which was the headquarters of the North-'VVest Fur Company 
for all that section of the country claimed by the Chippewas from Crow Wing to 
Pembina northwest and northeast to Sandy Lake, and Fond du Lac. 

The contract was a go-as-you-please, on foot, horse back, cart or canoe, any- 
way-to-get-there afifair. The contract price for carrying it was $1,100 a year. 
Kittson, being postmaster, could not act as sub-agent. He appointed me as 
assistant postmaster, and I ran the machine until some time in 1853 or '54. I did 
all the business of the office, made the quarterly returns and deposit of funds due 
the department, attending to every detail of the office, which at that time was no 
child's play as every letter and package had to be tied up in wrappers, waybilled 
and addressed to its destination. St. Paul packages contained nearly all of Min- 
nesota, Chicago, Detroit and east and west exchange. 

Letter rates of postage ran 6^4. I2j^, 18^, to 25 cents, according to distance, 
from 6% for short distances to 25 for 500 miles and over. Every letter and 
package had to be wrapped and addressed. Even single letters had to be wrapped 
and addressed to their proper offices. All wrappers had to be saved and used 
as long as they would hold together and an address could be put on without show- 
ing another. 

But when it came to making out the quarterly reports the dance had just 
commenced. Every letter received and dispatched must be returned from the 
records kept on bills for that purpose, and it made a package about the size of 
a family Bible, and the footing up of columns with the amounts running from 
6^4, 123X, 1834 to 25, was a corker. And right here let me tell you, with a 
feeling of pride, that I never had a quarterly return come back to me for 
correction. 

Let me give you a sketch of the business at that early day, and the hardships 
and tricks of some of our carriers. 

The Hudson's Bay Company, before the establishing of the Crow Wing 
Route, always sent special messengers or carriers every spring and fall to St. 
Paul with the mail from their outposts in the North and Northwest, consisting 
of a thousand or more letters and packages, all mailed at the postoffice in St. 
Paul for their establishments in Canada and England. 



504 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

The mail from Fort Garry, now Winnipeg, was generally carried by two men 
by cart or dog train. Occasionally it was packed by men on their backs, some- 
times, if in winter, via the Red Lake and Crow Wing route, but generally by the 
cart route via Ottertail Lake and Crow Wing. 

The postoffice having been established, Mr. Kittson appointed postmaster, and 
contract for carrying the mail let, the governor of the Hudson's Bay Company 
was notified and postal arrangements were made between the United States postal 
department and the governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, that all mail matter 
from the company, Prince Rupert's land, British possessions, should be mailed 
at Pembina, Wisconsin Territorj', with United States postage stamps, prepaid at 
the rates of our domestic and foreign contract the same as our own mail. The 
route was established as a monthly mail leaving Pembina the first of every 
month, with no specified time for arrival at Crow Wing, or return, though it 
nuist be within the month, and be made with all possible dispatch and as little 
delay as circumstances permitted. 

Our carriers were all half breeds, the best and most reliable men to be had. 
Our best man was "Savage" (Joseph) Mountrail. He had the endurance of a 
blood hound. Tough as an oak knot, fearless and faithful. To verify the above 
I will relate an instance on one of his trips: It was made in the fall when the 
rivers and lakes were just freezing over. We started him out on foot with his 
brother Alex as his assistant. The trip to Crow Wing was made in time but with 
considerable hardships. The return mail was large and had to be carried on the 
back. One carried the mail, the other the grub, bedding, etc. They met with no 
mishaps until arrival at Thieving River. Alex was then taken sick and would 
have to be carried. A white man would have cached tlie mail and seen to his 
brother. Not so with "Savage." He endeavored to pack Alex, the mail, grub 
and all, but made slow progress. He took the mail and grub, leaving Alex, and 
making a few miles, would return for him, and then again the mail, and so on 
until he arrived at Pembina on the sixth day from Thieving River. That is only 
one instance in many of these voyageurs. I had on the route one Paul Beauvier 
who was as tough, if that is what to call it, as man can get to be. But he was a 
voyageur and every inch of him. He never, even in the coldest of weather, wore 
a cap or hat. A blue cloth capot, without lining, with a capecha or hood attached, 
which was seldom worn on his head even in the coldest of weather, was his 
usual dress. He always went with an open breast, with nothing but a cotton shirt 
no matter if the mercury showed 20 or more degrees below zero. As an equivo- 
cator he was a success. He would spin out yarn after yarn finer than any gum 
string could possibly be stretched. 

I always gave him provisions sufficient for the round trip, but in Red Lake 
Village he would lay over two or three days, and in the morning when he wanted 
to leave for Crow Wing he would apply to the resident missionary, Mr. Wright, 
for grub to take him to Crow Wing, having played high old revel with the dusky 
maidens of the village until his supplies were exhausted. 

On one occasion, after getting his supplies from the unsuspecting missionary 
to last him to Crow Wing, before he got to the last wigwam or tepee of the village 
he hadn't a mouthful left for the trip. He knew they were cutting a road through 
from Crow Wing to Cass Lake and concocted a plan to euchre the overseer out 
of grub enough to take him through to Red Lake Village on his return trip. He 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 505 

struck the contractor or overseer some miles west of their encampment and told 
him a flowery yarn of how the roaring Red River had robbed him of all his 
provisions and asked the loan of enough to take him to Crow Wing, and that he 
would replace it on his return, and succeeded in getting what he wanted. In 
returning home Paul knew about where they were working the road, and took a 
straight cut some distance from the dog trail. He therefore kept the old trail 
and passed without drawing a growl from the dogs, getting home O. K. Those 
fellows may be looking for him yet. 

In 1853 I went into partnership with Forbes & Kittson at Indian trading. 
In 1854 I moved to St. Joseph, now \\'alhalla, and took charge of the post. From 
there I had to make a monthly trip to Pembina to attend to the arrival and 
departure of the mail. Tiring of that I recommended to the postoffice department 
at Washington the appointment of Joseph Rolette as postmaster, giving my 
reasons for it. He was duly appointed and held the office for several years, but 
failing to make out his regular quarterly returns on August 31, 1861, Joseph Y. 
liuckman was appointed. 

Buckman and Captain Donaldson were elected to the Territorial Legislature 
that year. They worked through the session at Yankton that winter. Donaldson 
.returned to Pembina in the spring. Buckman never came back. He died the next 
year, but where I can't, nor is it necessary here to tell how. 

Donaldson, I believe, was the next postmaster. John E. Sheals was appointed 
June 26, 1863. After Major Hatch's battalion left in the spring of 1864, Sheals 
went to Fort Garry, and left me to run the office as assistant. Collector of 
Customs Joseph Lemay and Joseph Rolette sculdugged, through Capt. ]. B. Todd, 
the appointment of Charles Murneau, and removed Sheals. I knew nothing about 
it vmtil I saw Murneau's appointment and bond drop out of the mail pouch. 
"Now, Mr. Lemay: after I am through with this mail I'll attend to you." And 
I most assuredly did — did it without one apology, or cream on the pudding. 
Joe Rolette came in while we were at it and I soon learned that he had a finger 
in the pie. I said to Joe, "Now as you took the trouble to write to Captain Todrl 
for the appointment of Mr. Murneau, just sit up to this table and ask Mr. Todd 
to have the appointment canceled and have Charles Cavileer appointed." loe 
most kindly did as I requested.'' 

April 28, 1865, Charles Cavileer was appointed and held the office for twenty 
years, when his son, E. K. Cavileer, under appointment of January 15, 1884, 
succeeded him. James R. Webb was appointed December 26, 1886. His bond 
never was accepted or completed, and E. K. Cavileer still holds the office. 



EARLY HISTORY BISMARCK POSTOFFICE — WHY SECRETARY OF WAR BELKNAP WAS 
IMPEACHED ORVILLE GRANT AND THE INDIAN TRADERSHIPS 

By Linda W. Slaughter ^1 

In December, 1872, the people of Edwinton, now Bismarck, tired of uncer- 
tainties in the military mail service, then carried by the quartermaster at Fort 
Abraham Lincoln, petitioned for the establishment of a mail route from Fargo 
to Edwinton and for the establishment of a postoffice. They also petitioned for 
my appointment as postmaster, which petition was endorsed favorably by the 



V 



506 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

military authorities at Fort Abraham Lincohi. The postoffice was established 
February 7, 1873, but Maj. S. A. Dickey, then post trader at Fort A. Lincoln, 
whose brother was in Congress from Pennsylvania, received the appointment as 
postmaster. Fort A. Lincoln was then known as Fort McKean, and as a post- 
office was established at that point soon afterwards Major Dickey could not hold 
the office at Edwinton as he resided beyond the delivery of the office. He resigned 
in my favor and I opened the office in March, 1873, as his deputy. It was then 
held that a married woman could not file a bond, so my husband. Dr. B. F. 
Slaughter, was appointed in April, and in August I became his assistant in name, 
but had full charge of the office for him as I had previously had for Major Dickey. 
The salary was fixed at the munificent sum of $12 per annum. In June, 1873, 
the office was changed in name from Edwinton to Bismarck, so named in order 
to attract the attention of German capital to the Northern Pacific Railroad, then 
under construction. The great chancellor acknowledged the compliment in an 
autograph letter to Secretary Wilkinson of the Northern Pacific Railroad. 

In the meantime Doctor Slaughter had gone to Washington and so impressed 
the department with the importance of the office that the salary was raised to 
$790 for the year 1874. 

There were then rumors of corruption in connection with freighting, con^ 
tracting and in the Indian and military traderships on the Missouri River, and 
Ralph Meeker put in an appearance with credentials from James Gordon Bennett 
of the New York Herald, with instructions to investigate and report the facts as 
to the alleged abuses at the Fort Berthold Indian Agency and other points. He 
brought to me letters of introduction asking my aid to secure him employment at 
the Berthold Agency in order that he might have better opportunities for investi- 
gation. This I accomplished through the help of a commandant of one of the 
upriver posts, and Meeker went to work as a common laborer on the agency 
farm, under the assumed name of J. D. Thompson. His letters were dated Bis- 
marck and mailed at this office, having been sent under cover to me for that 
purpose. 

One of these letters contained a terrible arraignment of Orville Grant, brother 
of the President, for his conduct of the Missouri River post traderships. These 
letters created a sensation in Bismarck and at the adjacent posts, and, indeed, 
throughout the country, and everj' effort was made to discover their author. 
Threats of violence were even made should he be discovered. At length an 
observant route agent, as the railway postal clerks were then called, reported that 
I was the author. Mindful of the danger to the actual author should the truth 
be known, I did not deny tht report. Orville Grant hastened to Washington 
and secured my summary removal and the appointment of a gentleman associated 
with him in the Fort Stevenson tradership as my successor. 

There was commotion among the people of Bismarck when the truth came to 
be known. Public meetings were held and a petition sent for my reinstatement. 
The old cannon, still owned by the city, which used to be a part of the armament 
of the Ida Stockdale, was planted on the square where the band stand now is and 
joined in the general protest made by vigorous speakers. They adjourned the 
public meeting to the postoffice where they assured me of their confidence and 
support. 



V 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 507 

The commandants of the mihtary- posts, who received their mail through the 
Bismarck postoffice, also sent protests against my removal. 

The Herald correspondence had been instigated by members of the United 
States Senate who feared that an expose of the abuses of which they were cogni- 
zant would mean the downfall of their party unless the system of farming out the . 
traderships existing under General Belknap could be stopped.* President Grant 
with his well known fidelity to friends, refused to even listen to the complaints. 
It was for that reason that the party leaders determined to make the expose even 
if the President's own brother should be involved. When the news of my 
removal reached these gentlemen they sought an interview with Postmaster-Gen- 
.eral Jewell, and I was reinstated. A new commission dated August 15, 1875, 
was afterwards sent me, with a kind personal letter from the postmaster-general. 
About this time the actual writer of these sensational letters, who had been 
steadily following the plow on the agency farm, was discovered. He narrowly 
escaped assassination at the agency and made his way to Fort Stevenson whence 
he was sent under escort to Bismarck. His discovery caused a revolution in my 
favor and those who had previously been my enemies became my friends. 

On July 17, 1873, the county commissioners of Burleigh County appointed 
me county superintendent of schools and in November I was elected to that 
position by the people. A question having arisen as to whether I was eligible 
Chief Justice Peter C. Shannon decided that a woman who had the qualifications 
of an elector as to residence and in other respects than as to sex, and was possessed 
of the scholarly attainments requisite, was eligible. My right to hold two offices 
was later questioned and in order to settle the question I wrote the postmaster- 
general and his reply was that "the annual salary of your office so nearly approxi- 
mates $1,000 that it is not deemed expedient for you to accept the office of 
county superintendent of schools." Whereupon I wrote this, my resignation : 

"Bismarck, Dakota, January 29, 1873. 
"Hon. Marshall Jewell, Postmaster-General, 
"Washington, D. C. 
"Dear Sir: I hereby tender my resignation of the office of postmaster at Bis- 
marck, Dakota, in favor of Clement A. Lounsberry of the Bismarck Tribune, to 
take effect at the close of the present fiscal year, June 30, 1876. I resign the \. J 

office because a sufficient allowance is not made for clerk hire and the duties of 
the office have become too onerous for me. I recommend Colonel Lounsberry 
for the position because he is a man of integrity and popular with our people, as 



* Meeker returned the next winter and aided by Custer and others developed more fully 
the scoundrelism which was then the rule in relation to the post traderships. The Indian 
traderships were in the hands of Orville Grant. He furnished the opportunity and others 
the money and received half the proceeds. The military traderships were controlled by the 
wife of the secretary of war who received a gift of $12,000 per annum from each of the 
posts at Forts Buford. Lincoln and Rice, and smaller sums from other posts, in return \j 

for the appointment of her friends as traders. It was these facts which led to the impeach- 
ment of Secretary Belknap and incidentally to the Custer massacre. General Custer's soul 
went out in sympathy to the oppressed and especially to the Indians whom he loved and 
who Jiad profound respect and admiration for him. Custer never told an Indian a lie. 
It was he who was instrumental in bringing Meeker back. 



\ 



508 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

I should regret to see the office to which I have devoted so much time and care, 
fall into unworthy hands. 

"With grateful remembrance of your past kindness, and wishes for your 
future, I am sincerely your friend, 

"LiNpA W. Slaughter, P. M., 

"Bismarck, Dakota." 

At this time I appointed F. D. Bolles assistant postmaster, and the office was 
at once moved to the Bismarck Tribune office, where he was employed as a 
printer. Later my resignation was amended to take effect April i, 1876, when 
Colonel Lounsberry was appointed and served until his resignation in November, 
1885. 

A WAR RE.MINISCENCE 

Sitting in the office of Augustus Haight at Jamestown, talking of the war 
and its incidents Air. Haight mentioned the fact that he w^as in Washington 
when Ellsworth was killed, May 24, 1861. "And I was in Alexandria," responded 
Colonel Lounsberry. "I heard the shot ; I saw the bloody stairway and the life- 
less body." "And I," responded Mr. Haight, "accompanied his remains to his 
old home and delivered a letter to his father which Colonel Ellsworth handed me 
the evening before his death to be franked and mailed. I was employed in the 
office of the secretary of state under William H. Seward. That morning I was 
up early and out on Penn Avenue, Washington. An orderly hastening down 
the avenue at a furious pace told me, in response to my inquiries, of Ellsworth's 
fate. I hurried to the White House and Mr. Lincoln, in response to my 'good 
morning, Mr. President,' replied 'but it is a sad one. Be seated. Secretary 
Cameron will soon arrive and we shall know the truth.' Colonel Ellsworth had 
handed me two letters the evening before to be franked by some member of 
Congress, as the soldiers were allowed free postage. After coming from the 
White House, I met Congressman Van Wyck, who franked them. One was 
addressed to Colonel Ellsworth's father and was handed by me to him at the 
Astor House, New York, as I was chosen by President Lincoln as one of the 
escort to go with the remains to his home in Saratoga, N. Y. We were 
born in the same town and were school boys together. The other was addres.sed 
to Miss Spofford, Rockford, 111., to whom he was to be married. This I sent by 
the hand of a friend. I went with the remains as stated. There were immense 
crowds everywhere. John Brown was the first martyr 'for liberty, Ellsworth 
was the second, or at least was so regarded. His death fired the northern heart 
and the flame of patriotism was fanned as if by a gale." 

"And I," responded Colonel Lounsberry, "was a member of the Marshall 
Light Guards which became Company I in the First Michigan Infantr}-, which 
was organized .\pril 24, 1861, and reached Washington May i6th, being the first 
western regiment to reach the capital. Ellsworth came about the same time and 
was quartered in the capitol. The marble room of the Senate chamber was used 
for their commissary supplies. Alexandria was captured by our regiment and 
Ellsworth's. Ellsworth went by steamer: We crossed over the Long Bridge and 
marched over, arriving at daybreak. We captured Captain Ball's company of 



I 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA , 509 

Virginia cavalry consisting of thirty-five mounted men. It is a noteworthy 
fact that a mistaken order prevented bloodshed. Wilcox, our colonel, was com- 
manding. He ordered Captain Butterworth of the Coldwater Cadets to deploy 
his company as skirmishers and fire on Ball's company. Butterworth under- 
stood the order to "file' on them and waited for further orders. After getting in 
position as skirmishers, Ball surrendered. By the way, he was a cousin of 
ex-Mayor Ball, of Fargo. 

"In the meantime Ellsworth noted a Confederate flag flying over the Marshall 
House. He took Corporal Brownell and a file of soldiers and went to pull it 
down. Jackson, the proprietor of the hotel stood guard with a shotgun, swear- 
ing he would kill the first man who touched it or attempted to pull it down. 
Ellsworth attempted to pass him and was killed by Jackson and he by Brownell : 
This was about sunrise and it cast a gloom over our spirits which it took days 
to remove. We built Fort Ellsworth and occupied it until a few days before 
first Bull Run, and I was associated with Ellsworth's regiment at first Bull Run, 
where I was wounded and being captured, was taken to Libby Prison." 

Mr. Haight was in the state department at Washington with William H. 
Seward, and was a member of the Cassius M. Clay battalion, organized for the 
defense of Washington, at the breaking out of the war. Later he raised a com- 
pany and served till the close of the war as a captain in the Forty-second Wisconsin. 

THE PICTURE OF JEFF DAVIS IN SKIRTS 

When gathering material for North Dakota History, this writer found in 
the possession of Ransom Phelps, of Breckenridge, a program of the first 
dance given at Wahpeton. It was neatly printed by the Minneapolis Tribune. 
It was called a "Fancy Dress Ball," for the dedication of the first business house 
in Chahinkapa (Wahpeton), on Monday, July 6, 1874. The music wasljy Howe's 
Wild Rice Band. The committee of arrangements was D. Wilmot Smith, J. 
Mourin, J. W. Blanding and M. T. Rich. The floor managers were J. O. Bur- 
bank, R. Phelps and C. B. Falley. 

Ransom Phelps and D. Wilmot Smith were military telegraph operators dur- 
ing the war. and Phelps has in his possession the originals of many important 
messages. He has a manifold copy of the bulletins of Secretary Stanton an- 
nouncing the surrender of Lee ; Grant's dispatches, etc. He was the operator in 
the New York office who received the message. He has a message from P. T. 
Barnum, dated Hartford, May 17, 1865, directing his manager at New York to 
"Put outside a picture of Jefif Davis in ' petticoats, represented as running, ex- 
posing his boots and scolding the Government for its want of magnanimity in 
chasing women," and JefT went into history in that plight. 

Phelps wrote George Francis Train for his autograph. Train replied, writ- 
ing in red and blue : 

"Citizen 

"Ransom Phelps. 

"Seven years ago I stopped animal food and hand shaking. 

"Long since I gave up lectures, stage, or contact with adults. 

"April loth I stopped talking with grown people and this may be my last 
autograph. 

"April 23, 1881. George Fr.'\ncis Train." 



510 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

m.AKr.LY DUEANT, THE COMPOSER AND ORIGINAL SINGER OF ONE OF OUR MOST 
STIRRING AND POPULAR WAR SONGS 

Died in Grand Forks, N. D., September 20, 1894, Blakely Durant, more 
familiarly known through this Northwest, if not over the entire country as "Old 
Shady." At his funeral, which occurred at the Baptist Church in that city, his 
remains were escorted by the Willis A. Gorman Post, G. A. R. ; also by Company 
F, North Dakota National Guard, and the Grand Forks City Band. 

Blakely Durant was born at Fort Madison, Miss., a short distance south of 
Natchez, in 1826, and was, therefore, at the time of his death, in his sixty-ninth 
year. When but a child his parents emigrated to Texas. His father soon after 
died, when his mother removed with her family to Cincinnati, Ohio, when he 
was but seven years of age. At that early day, 1833, there were no public schools 
in Cincinnati for the education of children of negro parents. However, "Old 
Shady" acquired a good, sound, practical education, which in fifteen years proved 
to be the foundation of a wide range of information, which so enriched his life 
in after years. When still quite young, Durant removed to Mercer County, Ohio. 
Here he soon after married and continued to reside on a farm until the breaking 
out of the War of the Rebellion. 

When the news of General Sherman's death reached Grand Forks, there was 
none who mourned the sad event more than did "Old Shady," the general's 
famous "Singing Cook." He said : "I saw General Sherman at the encamp- 
ment in Minneapolis in 1884, but had no opportunity to speak with him then. 
About one month later the old general passed through Grand Forks, when I met 
him at the depot and had some fifteen minutes or more of conversation with "him. 
At first the old general did not seem to know me, but when I told him that I was 
really 'Old Shady,' the very same 'Old Shady' who had so long followed his 
fortunes in the war, I thought he would shake me to pieces. The old general 
asked me more questions in the few moments allotted to us than I could possibly 
answer, and they followed thick and fast one after another. That, said 'Old 
Shady,' was the last time I ever saw the dear old general alive, but, I have 
always corresponded with him since, and he has sent me his photograph; also 
that of his wife. I always thought a great deal of the old general, and in return 
he seemed to think a great deal of me. General Sherman was a man who never 
made any pretensions, but he was always very plain, strict and straight-forward 
in his dealings with me and his soldiers." 

When General Sherman's funeral occurred at St. Louis, that same faithful 
friend, "Old Shady," was true to his love, and was there, and there was none to 
mourn more than he, the faithful old colored servant, who followed the remains 
of his dear old general to their last resting place. 

Blakely Durant entered the army as a private soldier, in February, 1862, in 
the Seventy-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which regiment was in General Sher- 
man's division. From the very first he was detailed as cook for the officer's 
mess. The Seventy-first Regiment started from Camp Todd, at Troy, Ohio, 
and went to Paducah, where they were brigaded with the Fifty-fourth Ohio, and 
the Fifty-fifth Illinois. Col. David Stewart, of the Fifty-fifth Illinois was made 
commander of the brigade. From that time until after the battle of Shiloh "Old 
.Shady" saw General .Sherman almost constantly. 



/ ~ 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 511 

"Old Shady" entered General McPherson's service soon after the battles of 
Fort Donelson and Shiloh, going through to Vicksburg. He was a well known 
and popular caterer for the various groups of Union officers, among whom he 
was a general favorite. Generals Sherman and McPherson were his chosen 
princes. It was through the corps commander at Paducah that he first met and 
became acquainted with General Sherman, who ever afterwards claimed "Old 
Shady" as a part of his essential following. 

The hero of the famous march "From Atlanta to the Sea," feelingly made 
"Old Shady" the subject of an extended and very interesting sketch in his 
"Memoirs of the War," which was published in the October number of the North 
American Review for 1888. 

After the battle of Shiloh, "Old Shady" met General Sherman at Vicksburg, 
where he was then catering for General McPherson's mess. When General 
Grant's headquarters were on board the gunboat at Milliken's Bend, in the winter 
of 1863, "Old Shady" was detailed as cook of Grant's mess, a position he occu- 
pied for nearly three months, during which time he was nightly called into the 
ladies' cabin to sing "Old Shady" and other songs for the general and his guests, 
and there it was that he again attracted the attention of General Sherman. 

Although not detailed, and not expected to serve in another capacity than that 
of cook, "Old Shady" often found opportunities to show his bravery and loyalty. 
At the battle of Pittsburg Landing, when a retreat had been ordered, the Seventy- 
first Ohio having been suddenly surprised by the enemy while at dinner, "Old 
Shady," observing that the Seventy-first Ohio regimental colors had been for- 
gotten in the hasty retreat, quietly took his favorite guitar, returned to the old 
camping grounds, secured the colors and triumphantly brought them into camp ; 
but in so doing lost his guitar which he prized so highly. The officers, however, 
did not forget his bravery, and soon after presented him with a new and very 
handsome guitar, which was still in his possession at the time of his death. 

In his flattering account of "Old Shady," as pubHshed in the North American 
Review, General Sherman wrote of his famous song, "Old Shady," as follows: 
"I do believe that since the prophet Jeremiah bade the Jews to sing for joy 
among the chiefs of the nations, because of their deliverance from the house of 
bondage, no truer song of gladness ever ascended from the lips of man than at 
Vicksburg, when "Old Shady" sang for us in a voice of pure melody this song 
of deliverance from the bonds of slavery: 

"OLD SHADY." 

Yah ! Yah ! Yah ! Come laugh wid me, 
De white folks say Old Shady am free, 
I 'spec de year of Ju-be-lee 
• Am a-coming; am a-coming; 

Hail, mighty day! 

Chorus — Den away, den away, I can't stay here any longer. 
Den away, den away, for I am goin' home. 

Old Massa got scared, and so did his lady; 
Dis chile break for old Uncle Aby, 



512 EARLY HISTORY OF XORTH DAKOTA 

Open the door, for here's Old Shady 
A-comin', a-comin', 
Hail, mighty day ! 

Chorus — Den away, den away, etc. 

Good-bye, Mass' Jeff, good-bye. Mass' Stephens ; 

'Suse dis niggah for taken his leavins, 

I 'spec by and by you'll see Uncle Abraham, 

A-comin', a-comin'. 

Hail, mighty day ! 

Chorus — Den away, den away, etc. 

Good-bye, hard work without any pay ; 

I's goin' up north where the white folks say 

Dat white wheat bread and a dollar a day 

Am a-comin', a-comin'. 

Hail, mighty day ! 

Chorus — -Den away, den away, etc. 

Oh! I's got a wife and a nice little baby 
Way up north in the lower Canady; 
Won't they shout when they see Old Shady 

A-comin', a-comin'. 

Hail, mighty day ! 

Chorus — Den away, den away, etc. 

Durant thus spoke of the old commander and the old times : 

"After the entry at Vicksburg, General Sherman was stationed on the Big 
Black River, and, whenever he came to town he would generally quarter with 
General McPherson. I have always found the general to be a very agreeable 
gentleman — always approachable, and very strong in his attachments to the 
soldiers." 

"I left the army at Vicksburg, in December, 1863, and returned to Ohio, and 
commenced steamboating. I settled in St. Paul, Minn., having moved to that 
city in 1866." 

"Old Shady" had lived at Grand Forks for twenty years before his death. 
His son is a graduate of the North Dakota University. 

THE HALFBLOOD OF NORTH DAKOTA 

The Metis, or halfbloods, were mostly the product of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany. The company engaged men from Canada, Scotland and England as 
employes in their fur trade in the Northwest, and these men often remained in 
the Hudson's Bay service their lifetime. They were usually men of vigorous, 
hardy physique and their labors were onerous, full of hardship, and often of 
danger and excitement. Many of them, in the absence of white women, took to 
themselves Indian wi\es, and the offspring in time augmented in number, by in- 
coming settlers, and natural increase, until at one time there must have been 
about 3,000 scattered through what is now North Dakota and Manitoba. The 



! 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 513 

French ancestry predominated, but there were many Scotch and English half- 
bloods. In these palmy days, when the prairie was open ground and the buffalo 
plenty they possessed many of the characteristics of the Acadians, so pleasantly 
and beautifully described by Longfellow. They were a simple folk, but honest, 
merry, and led with the herds of buffalo, from which they received their chief 
substance, almost pastoral lives. 

BUFF.\LO HUNTING 

The history of the Metis, or halfblood, and his contemporary, the buffalo, 
is of peculiar interest. \Miile the old halfblood of the prairie had scattered all 
over the Northwest, and is being mingled and lost among the greater number . 
of later white immigrants, yet there are many of them still with us, whose earlier 
years were spent in hunting over these prairies, making their livelihood by the 
fruits of the trap or gun. The buffalo are gone and practically extinct, except 
a few that are preserved in private or national parks; but their traces are still 
plentiful and show proof of the immense herds that used to feed on the vast 
prairie pastures of this valley and the adjacent hills and plateaus lying westward. 
Deep worn paths along the hillsides still look as if made by herds of cattle a 
season or two ago ; great hollows in the ground yet remain where the buft'alo 
have eaten the salty soil; and now and then the farmer plows up a huge bone 
or skull that remains as a mark of the grave of one of these monarchs of the 
plains. In some places these bones are found in such quantities that persons 
have made a business of collecting them by the wagon load, and thousands of 
tons have been sent east to be ground up for fertilizers, etc. 

But the history of the buffalo and of the people who lived on them and hunted 
them, is not ancient history. In 1877 a caravan of Red River carts came to 
Pembina for a market, and at that time dried buffalo meat and pemmican could 
be bought at stores and were common articles of traffic. 

The grand summer buffalo hunt was always the chief event of the year. 

From the 8th of June until the 15th, the hunters would assemble at some 

central place in the eastern part of the state. Bands from various points in 

Manitoba would join them. The brigade when made up consisted of different 

nations, the largest part being of French parentage. Then there were English, 

Scotch, Orkney and a few other nationalities. In the brigade there were about 

six hundred carts drawn by horses and oxen, and some twelve hundred persons, 

men, women and children. Being all assembled, and all arrangements made, 

the officers were appointed by some leader, from councilmen to constables, 

guides, etc. ; the route determined upon after hearing the report of scouts, sent 

out to find where big bands of buffalo were ranging, the brigade would form in 

lines, three or four according to the size of the party, to make a move for the 

nearest buffalo. Then they would strike out for the plains, sometimes for the 

Cheyenne, Devils Lake, Mouse River, Jim River or Turtle Mountain. As soon 

as they found buffalo they would follow them up for days, whichever way they 

ran. 

*** ***** ** 

When the hunters see the herd they trot along slowly until they get within 

a half a mile of the animals. Some are standing, some lying down, and a few 
Vol. 1—33 



514 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

feeding, and as they begin to rise the hunters go a little faster, but not to pass 
the captain who is supposed to have the poorest horse in the brigade, the captains 
being all old men. The buffalo are some one hundred and lifty or two hundred 
yards in advance. The hunters are abreast, three or four feet apart, and when 
the captains say "Ho ! Ho !" all are off like a flash. The guns are all loaded, each 
hunter has three or four bullets in his mouth, and bullet pouch and powder honi 
at his side. The guns were the old Hudson's Bay Company's Nor- West-trading 
made especially for the trade, long stock and flintlock, priming themselves, and 
carrying a ball equal to a rifle and with force enough to pass through a buffalo 
bull. In loading the gun after the first shot the powderhorn with a large opening, 
was given three shakes in the closed left hand for the right charge of powder; 
the gun in the right hand ; a ball was taken from the mouth and the powder 
poured into the gun, which was shaken sufficiently to send all to the breach and 
putting the priming in the pan. The ball was then dropped into the muzzle of 
the gun whence it rolled down and rested on the powder, using no wad. Then 
they were ready for another shot, and so on to the end of the chase. 

In the meantime the buffalo were breaking prairie and raising dust enough 
to create a cyclone. In the race each will average killing from eight to ten ani- 
mals, and some of the best shooters as high as twenty. In shooting to make dead 
sure, aim about half way up the ribs behind the left shoulder into the heart, the 
runner being from five to ten feet from the animal. Sometimes they have to 
shoot from either side of the victim, but always behind the shoulder. So on to 
the end of the race from the time they get into the herd, say one mile or a mile 
and a half. The women follow right up with the carts to load the meat and take 
back to camp. The race ended the hunters return to the beginning of the chase, 
each man taking his own row. Each gun charge has the mark of the runner, 
one buck shot, or whatever his mark may be ; others two buck shot, some with 
shot of different sizes, and others slugs, so there is very seldom a dispute as to 
the killing of the animal. 

Some of the hunters with poor horses, not fast enough to run in the chase, 
when they find runners with more cows than they want or can take care of, buy 
an animal for five shillings and in that way all, in starting for home, when the 
himt has been good, return loaded. The men then skin and cut up the animals, 
leaving mostly bones for the wolves to fight over. The meat is then loaded into 
the carts and drawn home by the women, boys and girls. 

For eighteen days we were in sight of buftalo and chased, as we required the 
meat for making pemmican, and dried meat enough to fill the carts for our return 
home. 

In all we were among the buffalo for six or eight weeks. Full loaded we 
turned faces homeward, rejoicing and thankful that no serious mishaps had 
befallen us. 

Arriving, each one takes the meat from the carts and piles it in a good place. 
The women then cut it into thin slabs about a quarter of an inch thick, two feet 
wide and four feet long. They then make a long rack with poles. After this 
stakes are driven in the ground and the poles are tied on with cords cut from the 
parchment skin of dry buffalo hide. The slabs of meat are put on these poles 
commencing on the lower and so on to the top. In this way it is dried in the 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 515 

sun, and in good favorable weather will dry in a day and a half. It is then put 
in bales two and a half feet long, eighteen inches wide and eighteen high. Then 
tied with buffalo cord in a solid pack and it is ready for the carts to be taken to 
a chosen place where water and wood is convenient as well as grazing for the 
horses and cattle. 

The long, thin, dry strips are then taken and placed on the flesh side of a 
buffalo hide, or the cart cover, and beaten into a mass of shreds with flails. Then 
it is thrown into large kettles of hot tallow and when thoroughly mixed is poured 
hot into sacks prepared for it, made from buffalo hide and sewn up with sinews 
which hold from fifty to a hundred and fifty pounds each. These sacks were 
permitted to keep the fur on but as a rule the less valuable hides are used to make 
them. After the pemmican is cooled it becomes so hard that it often requires a 
heavy blow to break it. It will keep many years if properly taken care of, and 
contains a vast amount of nutriment to the pound. It is eaten in this form, or 
can be cooked with vegetables, or in other ways. Tongues were made into berry 
pemmican. They were treated with marrow fat, berries and maple sugar and 
thus made a very palatable dish. Tenderloin whipped into shreds and served 
with marrow fat was a feast for the epicure. The buffalo tongues were dried 
sliced or whole, and often buffalo were killed for the tongues alone. — Charles 
Cavileer, in The Record, April, 1896. 

H.\LF-BLOOD WEDDINGS 

Entering the church, the bride and groom with their best fellows march up 
to the altar. The priest joins them together, pronounces them man and wife and 
gives them a benediction. Then everybody comes to the front to kiss the bride, 
and to refuse would be considered a gross insult and probably cause a scrap with 
the groom at some future time. After the ceremony they go en masse to the 
bride's home where a bounteous repast is spread, consisting of pemmican, raw 
and hashed with onions, dried meat in slabs and hashed with onions or earlic, 
fresh fish from the Pembina River, game from the prairies and woods, "gallette" 
as flour is scarce, potatoes and vegetables, with a dessert of pies, puddings and 
wild berries, topped off with the always present wedding cake which is always 
a stunner. Sometimes when the bride is sitting in a chair with one foot crossed 
over the other, in deep thought, probably dreaming of the happy future, some rude 
scamp quietly slips off one of her slippers, leaving her to stump around with one 
shoeless foot. The moccasin is then put up at auction to the highest bidder, the 
groom buying it at two pound sterling, which he had to pay, the money being spent 
for the good of the company. 

At the table none but the men or braves sit down, while the women sit on the 
floor in the comers, and when the onslaught commenced it was a thing of joy 
and beauty to behold, but when finished the scraps are few and lean. They eat, 
fiddle and dance, and dance, fiddle and eat at the bride's home as long as the eat- 
ables last, when they depart for the l^room's home where the same performance 
is gone through, then the old style, until another wedding or something else 
turns up to change the scene or program. — Charles Cavileer. 

The halfblood Indians who were the first occupants of the country had ranged 
over the country from the days of the old Hudson's Bay voyageurs, sometimes on 



516 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

one side of the line and sometimes on the other. Now they were on the Pembina 
Hills, again on the headwaters of the James, and then here or perhaps on the 
woody mountains on the British side. The prairies and hills were their home, 
hunting and fishing their occupation, and for a time it was very doubtful as to 
whether Canada or the United States was their country; but after the halfbreed 
troubles in Canada they settled down in the Turtle Mountains to the number of 
about three thousand, of whom the greater number have been recognized as 
American Indians. Some of those Canadian born have become naturalized and 
are good citizens and good farmers. 

JARED W. D.\NIELS 

Jared W. Daniels was appointed agent of all of the treaty Sioux in 1868 and 
went to Fort Totten and established the Indian agency there in the spring of 
1869. General Joseph N. G. Whistler, a veteran of the Mexican war, was then in 
command of the fort which had been built there in 1867. In the spring of 1869, 
Doctor Daniels also established the Sisseton Agency at the Sisseton Reservation. 
Finding Devils Lake required additional care, he recommended the appointment of 
a special agent there, and Doctor Forbes of St. Paul was appointed, but Doctor 
Daniels remained as the agent at Fort Wadsworth on the Coteaux till 1872. 
Fort Ransom, at the bend of the Sheyenne, was occupied by troops under Colonel 
Hall. Guards were sent with all supplies, but the doctor traveled everywhere 
with an ambulance and a couple of Indian guides. 

Rolette's cart line — pembina and st. paul 

Hon. Charles E. Flandrau, writing of Joseph Rolette, gives facts of historic 
interest in relation to Rolette and the creation of the cart line from Pembina to 
St. Paul, which sometimes embraced as many as six hundred carts: 

"In his boyhood, young Joe Rolette was sent to New York City to be edu- 
cated under the supervision of Ramsey Crooks, at that time president of the 
American Fur Company. Judge Flandrau relates that when the pioneer boy 
first appeared on the streets of the metropolis he was dressed in a full suit of 
buckskin and carried a rifle on his shoulder. Tradition has it that he was a sort 
of a madcap young fellow, fonder of adventure than of books and study, though 
in one of his letters among the Sibley papers Mr. Crooks speaks of him as 'getting 
on very well' and 'giving promise of becoming a useful man.' When he left 
New York for his home on the frontier he had a good education and some accom- 
plishments, in addition to his natural bright, buoyant spirits, enthusiasm and quick 
wit. 

"On his return from New York young Rolette entered the service of his 
father in the fur trade. About 1840, he was sent up into the Red River country 
and located at a post on the present site of Pembina. He was then under the 
direction of General Sibley, who was in general charge of the fur company's 
business in this region, and whose headquarters were at ]\Iendota, Minn., or St. 
Peter's, as it was then called. In 1843, in connection with his mother's brother, a 
Mr. Fisher, he started a line of carts between Pembina and St. Paul. About this 
time General Sibley sent Norman W. Kittson to take charge of the fur trade in the 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 517 

Red River country, and Rolette became Kittson's lieutenant. Kittson indorsed 
Joe's project for a cart line between Pembina and St. Peter's and added another 
line. In 1844 six carts came down during the year. 

"In 1858 this number had increased to 600, and in the meantime a very 
important part of the fur traffic had been diverted from the routes of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company to St. Paul. It is not too much to say that it was this species 
of commerce that made St. Paul a city. In the conduct of his business Joe was not 
very careful or methodical, but always meant to be faithful to the interests of his 
company. He was always alert in protecting its rights. The American traders 
at the Red River posts suffered great losses from time to time from the aggres- 
sion of the Hudson's Bay Company's men. The latter, no doubt encouraged by 
their superiors, frequently passed over the boundary between Canada and the 
United States and engaged in unrestricted traffic with the Indians on American 
soil, furnishing the savages with unlimited quantities of whisky, which the 
American traders were forbidden under severe penalties to sell. In vain did 
Kittson protest and remonstrate and ask for protection and redress. General 
Sibley could not help him and the Government would not. At last, in 1847, some 
Canadian traders came down near Pembina and set up a post two miles from 
Joe Rolette's so-called factory and sent out runners to the Indians that they 
wanted their furs and that they had plenty of money and whisky galore. Before 
they had fairly begun operations Rolette took a dozen or so of his plucky retain- 
ers, half-breed Indians for the most part, marched against the intruding Brit- 
ishers, tumbled their goods out of their houses, burned their houses to the ground 
and drove the traders and their retainers in dismay back into Canada. It is 
needless to say that this put a check on the trespassing for a considerable time, 
and there were no internal arbitrations or deliberations, or any sort of complica- 
tions over the matter, either. Writing of this incident to Sibley, Kittson said : T 
fully approve of Joseph's conduct, though I do not know what the result may be. 
But if the H. B. Company returns again they will be taught a severe lesson, and 
one they will not soon forget.' " 

Rolette died at Pembina, May 16, 1871. 

AN OLD TIME TRADING EXCURSION 

In gathering the data for "North Dakota History," this writer met at Bottineau 
S. B. Flowers, who accompanied Captain Shelton's trading expedition through 
North Dakota in 1843. They left St. Louis in March. The party consisted of 
Captain Shelton, with a corps of doctors and surveyors and other assistants, 
and an armed guard of fifty men accompanying a pack train of 175 mules loaded 
with beads and trinkets and merchandise of various kinds, especially those articles 
looked upon with favor among the Indians, including a liberal supply of whisky 
and blankets. 

Captain Shelton would display his wares on the bright colored blankets and 
found no trouble in obtaining $100 worth of furs for a cup of glass beads. The 
Indians were rich in the supplies the chase afforded. One could go to any high 
point, says Captain Flowers, and range a glass over the prairies in different 
directions and thousands of buffalo would be brought to view. The Indians 
made no complaint in those days about unfulfilled treaties, no claim that they 



518 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

were starving, but instead they were proud and independent, well armed and 
contented. 

Captain Shelton's party met the Indians in their villages and travelled from 
place to place, gathering up their furs, packing them to the mouth of the Yellow- 
stone where a French trader, named Sarpee, was located and was running a line 
of boats down the Missouri to St. Louis. The boats were made of skins, made 
waterproof by treatment in oil, stretched over a skeleton boat about eight feet 
wide and fifty feet long. Two of these lashed together would carry nearly one 
hundred tons and, to use the language of Captain Flowers, would skim over the 
waters like a bird. The current in the Missouri River is seven miles an hour and 
St. Louis could be reached in sixty days from the time of leaving. The Sarpees, 
one brother at Council Blutfs and the one at what afterwards became Fort 
Buford, became enormously wealthy, worth a million or more, from trading 
with the Indians. 

Shelton's party left St. Louis in March, came up the Missouri visiting out- 
lying trading points, to the mouth of the Yellowstone, up that stream to what is 
now Billings, over to Brown Hole, Limkin River and Sweetwater, and then 
south and east, reaching Omaha in the autumn from the Platte with his pack 
animals, loaded with the fruits of the expedition. 

In all of North Dakota, excepting Chas. Cavileer at Pembina, Fred Gerard 
over on the Missouri, and Sarpee at the mouth of the Yellowstone, there were 
no white inhabitants, excepting a few of the old voyageurs intermarried with 
the Indians, from whom came the tribe of half-bloods heretofore mentioned. 

THE BATTLE OF BIG MEADOW 

In March, 1876, Oscar Ward led a party from Bismarck to the Black Hills 
consisting of Andrew Collins, Joe Mitchell, Hite Stoyell, and eight others. They 
were joined on the Little Heart by William Budge, D. M. Holmes, J. S. Eschel- 
man, Thomas C. Hall, A. F. McKinley, G. H. McFadden, James Williams, Peter 
Grenden, William Myric, James Jenks, and fifty-three others. The party were 
scattered along the trail covering a distance of about four miles. Camping at 
Big Meadow the Indians stampeded twenty-seven head of stock and a party of 
fourteen went out to search for them. Thomas Gushing was in charge of this. 
Oscar Ward gave this writer the following account of the battle on his return 
from the Black Hills : 

"We saw three Indians; one disappeared. Smith continued on the trail of 
the cattle, and the Indians fired on him. Smith returning the fire. George and I 
came up and advanced toward the Indians, skulking around the hills. We 
finally raised up quickly in order to draw their fire. Both fired, and then we 
raised up and gave it to them. One Indian rode away, and the pony of the other 
followed. Smith said we had downed one of them. Others of our party had 
come up, and we followed up and retook the cattle. There were many Indians 
off on the hills. We formed a guard around the cattle and the Indians began to 
circle around us. We drove the cattle from one hill to another, fighting all the 
way. We saw thirty-five Indians, and there were but fourteen of us. Scat- 
tered as we were, the Indians were too much for us. 

"James Jenks and I were together. Billy Budge was in the party. All 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 519 

started, but we succeeded in stopping them, and we all made for the top of a 
high ridge. Smith and Jim Williams were ahead and got over the ridge about 
two hundred yards, when the Indians shot both Williams and his horse. His thigh 
was broken by an arrow. The Indians closed in on all sides, and we fought it 
out right there. Jenks shot one Indian as they attempted to cut off Collins, 
whose horse was shot, and who was also shot through the knee. It was wonder- 
ful what a jump that Indian made when the ball hit him. He went off hopping 
on one leg, making fearful leaps. Brother George was shot through the shoulder 
and his pony killed. He and Budge stood together. Another shot struck my 
brother, and Budge called to me that he was killed. 

"George was the only one killed, Williams and Collins were the only ones 
seriously wounded. We lost seven horses on the hill and made breastworks of 
them when they fell. There were but two of the fourteen which were not 
injured. 

"We saw one Indian strapped to his horse. Two were holding another 
on his horse. Another could not carry his gun and had one helping to hold him 
on his horse and another we knew Budge killed. Budge shot the chief. They 
seemed to get tired and went away. Williams fought like a tiger after he was 
down. We carried him and the body of my brother to. camp, fourteen miles 
away, and buried him at Big Meadow. 

"As we were about to start Tom Cushing said he would bet a horse that the 
Indians would be on the knoll where we were fighting before we got three hun- 
dred yards away. We were not two hundred yards away before there were two 
Indians on the knoll. 

"Budge's horse played out on the way to the knoll. He had a narrow escape 
bvit he was a good shot and downed his Indian. Joe Mitchell and Smith rode 
around to our Indian, the one we had shot in the beginning of the fight. They 
found him badly wounded and finished him. 

"We recovered seven or eight of the cattle but the Indians got away with the 
most of them. We saw Indian signs near the hills but we got through without 
much further trouble. We had a fight coming back in the fall and found one 
man, who, with a companion had formed a barricade of their goods and were 
fighting from under their wagon. One was killed and the other wounded, and 
yet they had stood off the Indians. We could not tell how many there were and 
yet their axle was shot all to pieces from the many shots that struck it. 

"I never knew better fighters than Budge, Jenks and Collins. After this bat- 
tle the boys were willing enough to stand their trick at guard duty." 

DON STEVENSON, FREIGHTER 

Don Stevenson, in a letter to Colonel Lounsberry in 1897, said : 
"I was the contractor at Fort Rice until that was abandoned in 1877, when 
Fort Yates was built. I was the contractor at Fort Wadsworth in 1868, then ' 
known as Kettle Lakes. Wadsworth was built in 1864, with material hauled from 
Fort Ridgeley. It was located in the coteaus, twenty-two miles west of Big Stone 
Lake. I was contractor at Fort Abercrombie in connection with Judge McCauley. 
I freighted from St. Cloud to Fort Totten in 1866, and from Fort Stevenson to 



520 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Fort Totten, the supplies having been brought up the Missouri to that point by 
steamer. 

"In 1876 I engaged in freighting to the Black Hills, running twenty teams, 
and established a supply store at Crook City, the first town in the Black Hills. 
That year I brought to Bismarck several hundred pounds of gold ore, which I 
delivered to Colonel Lounsberry, who sent it to the Smithsonion Institution at 
Washington. This and some rock brought to him by Capt. John W. Smith fur- 
nished the first conclusive evidence to the Government of the existence of gold 
in the Black Hills. 

"I arrived at Big Meadow with my train from Bismarck just after the Oscar 
Ward party, of which Billy Budge w^as a member, had their great battle with the 
Indians. Theirs was the first train from Bismarck to the Hills. We found the 
remains of fourteen of their horses killed by Indians. We also found their 
abandoned wagons and the body of George Ward, killed in their battle. The 
Indians had dug it up and stripped it of clothing. Their marks were still fresh 
where they had struck it with their "coo" sticks. They had made a breastwork 
of their dead horses, and had fought with desperation, driving off the Indians. 
The fight was going against them until Billy Budge shot White Fish, their 
leading chief, when the Indians left and the party went on to the Hills. 

"In 1877 I went to Fort Keogh, where I had a hay contract. I put in 3,800 
tons of hay at $28 per ton, in 64 working days. I went across the plains from 
Fort Abraham Lincoln, making the first freight trail from the Missouri River to 
Fort Keogh. I had 95 wagons, 20 mowing machines and 10 horse rakes. There 
were 125 men in my party. I put in 2,200 tons of hay the same year at Fort 
Custer, and 5,000 cords of wood. McLean & Macnider, of Bismarck, were 
interested with me, and had put in $70,000 before they got a cent in return. The 
contracts amounted to $104,000." 

CANADA INVADED AND INDIAN MURDERERS CAPTURED 

W. C. Nash came from St. Paul to Grand Forks in 1863, with an expedition 
to capture Little Six and Medicine Bottle, who were leaders in the 1862 mas- 
sacre. They camped where Major Hamilton now lives in Grand Forks. They 
found that Little Six and Medicine Bottle were on British North America soil, 
and as this was the time when our Government was having trouble in the Mason 
and Slidell affair, President Lincoln did not approve of doing anything to make 
greater complications between our country and England. The troops did not 
cross the line, but often individuals did. Nash's party sent out a Frenchman who 
brought the two Indians in. They were finally secured and bound and taken to 
Fort Pembina, where they were kept until spring, when they were taken to Fort 
Snelling, had a trial, were found guilty and hung. 

The Indians were captured when drank and were hurried across the line 
strapped to dog sledges. They awakened from their drunken stupor to find 
themselves in the log jail at Pembina. Frequent attempts were made to kill them 
by the apparently "accidental" discharge of firearms. Several times bullets passed 
through the clothing of Little Six, but the fates saved him for the gallows. 
Some of the crimes of which he was guilty were the most atrocious recorded in 
the annals of Indian warfare. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 521 

DANGERS OF COURIERS IN THE INDIAN COUNTRY 

June 27, 1877, George W. Elder and James Gunder left Fort Abraham Lin- 
coln bearing dispatches for the commanding officer at Fort Buford. 

They left Fort Lincoln about 8 o'clock in the evening and were to ride by 
day or night, as they felt disposed, and reached Knife River on the 30th, about 
5 o'clock ; and after resting awhile, concluded to cross the Bad Lands and the Little 
Missouri before daylight the next morning. They had gone four miles when 
they saw eight Indians directly in front of them and about three-quarters of a 
mile off, and knowing it was impossible to run away, reached a butte some five 
hundred yards away. After dismounting and picketing their ponies on the side of 
the butte, they found shelter on top behind some rocks, when the Indians charged. 
They fired several shots, killing one pony and wounding an Indian. At this the 
Indians divided and rode on each side of the butte until they were within six 
hundred yards, when they dismounted and opened fire, but seeing the secure 
position the couriers were in, the Indians fired on their ponies, killing Gunder's 
and wounding Elder's. The Indians kept up a scattering fire till dark, when 
they withdrew. 

Securing their rations and ammunition from their ponies, they continued 
their journey on foot, occasionally crawling short distances to escape observation. 
Reaching a place of supposed safety they waited until morning, when they 
observed two Indians on ponies a mile away. At dark they started again and 
made their way to the Missouri River, some thirty miles distant, where they 
hailed a passing steamer and were landed safely at Fort Stevenson and returned 
by stage to Bismarck and Fort A. Lincoln. 

FAMOUS SCOUTS 

William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill), famous scout and buffalo hunter, is frequently 
mentioned in these pages. He was a favorite of General George Crooks and 
other frontier commanders. He was assigned to assist the Indian Office in the 
attempted arrest of Sitting Bull on the occasion of his death. He passed away 
at Denver in 191 7. His reputation was international and he was honored and 
feted by crowned heads in Europe and respected by all who knew him in the 
United States. 

YELLOWSTONE KELLY 

Luther Sage Kelly, residing on a ranch at Paradise, California, in 1917, known 
as Yellowstone Kelly, came to the Yellowstone region in 1868, and was engaged 
in carrying the military mail from Missouri River posts to Fort Buford at the 
mouth of the Yellowstone, and when attacked by two Sioux Indians on the Knife 
River, he killed both of them. Incidentally reporting the fact at a wood yard 
near Fort Stevenson, some visiting Arickaree Indians went to the locality of the 
fight, counted coos on the dead Indians and brought in their scalps, followed by 
ihe usual scalp dance and accompanying festivities. In 1870 he supplied the 
garrison at Fort Buford with wild meat. In 1873 he accompanied Colonel George 
A. Forsythe, of General Sheridan's staff, on a military reconnaissance up the 



522 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Yellowstone, of which the steamer Key \\'est, commanded by Captain Grant 
Marsh, was a feature, on that occasion reaching the Little Big Horn, becoming 
the first steamer to invade the waters of the Yellowstone above Brasseaus post, 
touched by General Sully in 1864. George Grinnell, a trusted scout and noted 
frontiersman, also accompanied General Forsythe, the reconnaissance being pre- 
liminary to the Custer expedition of 1876, which resulted in the death of Custer 
and his men. He was with General Nelson A. Miles on his campaign against 
Chief Joseph, w'ho surrendered to him in 1877, after one of the most brilliant 
tights ever made by warring chieftain. On their arri\-al at Bismarck the \ictor 
and his staff and the vanquished and his chiefs were tendered a banquet at the 
.Sheridan House, and as they were leaving the banquet hall the village school 
mistress planted a kiss on the cheek of Joseph in token of her admiration for his 
brilliant exploits and devotion to what he conceived to be the interests of his 
people. The author was one of the originators of this unique entertainment in 
which Kelly participated. Joseph was not a ruthless warrior. 

Mr. Kelly later entered the Indian service and retiring settled on his Cali- 
fornia ranch. 

THE SCOUT TII.\T CUSTER LOVED 

Charles Reynolds was the favorite scout of General George A. Custer. He 
came to the Missouri River in 1868. and in 1869 furnished Fort Rice with wild 
meat and in 1870, in connection with Joseph Dietrich, one of the earliest business 
men of Bismack, performed a similar service for Fort Stevenson and later for 
Fort Abraham Lincoln. One day in June, 1873, seven elk fell from his unerring 
rifle on Apple Creek, about five miles from Bismarck. He was on the Stanley 
Expedition of 1872. the Yellowstone reconnaissance of 1873, and the Custer 
Black Hills expedition of 1874. He carried to Fort Laramie in August, 1874, the 
official dispatches from General Custer, and a telegram to the Bismarck Tribune, 
which enabled this writer to give to the Associated Press that famous "Gold in 
the Grass Roots" telegram which first announced the discovery of gold in the 
Black Hills. He was with Major Marcus A. Reno when his command sought 
safety on the Little Big Horn bluffs. Reynolds' horse was shot, and, falling on 
him, he was killed by the Indians, first emptying his revolver, every shot costing 
an Indian life. 

Charles Reynolds was bom in Warren County, Illinois, in 1854, and became 
an expert hunter and fearless Indian fighter at 16, taking part in the troubles on 
the Fort Phil Kearney trail, afterward in New Mexico and Kansas. He entered 
the military service in the i6th Kansas, in which he served during the Civil War. 
His remains are buried near the Michigan University at Ann Arbor as the result 
of the loving respect gained by him from a professor of that institution who knew 
him on the Black Hills expedition of 1874. 

JAMES A. EMMONS 

James A. Emmons established one of the first business houses of Bismarck, 
being post trader at Camp Hancock and in charge of a stock of goods owned 
by John H. Charles of Sioux City. He established the steam fern,' at Bismarck, 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 523 

built one of the first brick blocks, was the first and best patron of the Bismarck 
Tribune and later engaged in the publishing business on his own account. Mrs. 
Emmons, nee Xina B. Bumham. of Yankton, came to Bismarck a bride on the 
first steamboat to reach the place after the Northern Pacific crossing of the 
Missouri was located and became the mother of the first child born at the Capital 
City, and one of the founders of the North Dakota Historical Society, and a 
worker in all good causes. The Master may have had need of her, for he called 
her from their home at Pawnee, Oklahoma, in 1917. ^Ir. Emmons was also a 
human helper, in whose heart there was no guile. He was born at Guyandotte, 
X'irginia, December 29, 1843. He moved to Missouri in 1853 and to Nebraska in 
1854, soon thereafter becoming a cabin boy on the Mississippi and its tributaries. 
During the Civil War he was engaged in the U. S. Transportation Ser\'ice. In 
1865 he took a steamboat to the head of navigation on the Missouri, and, becom- 
ing attached to the country, carried out his purpose to settle at the Missouri River 
crossing when that point was settled in May, 1872, and at first called Edwinton. 
later Bismarck. 

D. w. m'call, miner 

In 1873, D. W. McCall, an old California miner, "grub staked" by J. S. and 
E. T. Winston, opened a lignite coal mine near the mouth of Knife River, mining 
some two hundred tons, for which there proved to be no market. In 1874 McCall 
was appointed as special mineralogist on Custer's Black Hills expedition, and it 
was his spade which brought to the surface the gold in the grass roots, on which 
the Associated Press telegram was based announcing the discovery of gold in the 
Black Hills. He returned to the Black Hills in January, 1875, with R. R. Marsh, 
Joseph Deitrich, W. H. Stimpson and others and returned with fine specimens 
of gold used by Major John A. McLean and Colonel Lounsberry in work before 
Congress to secure the opening of the Black Hills. Returning to the Hills he was 
killed by Indians when on a prospecting tour in the spring of 1876. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 
PIONEER SETTLERS AND SETTLEMENTS IN NORTH DAKOTA 

GRAND FORKS COUNTY 

Aside from the trading posts of Henry and others, Grand Forks had its 
earliest beginning, so far as the records are concerned, with the organization of 
Pembina County, of which it was then a part, in 1867, though for five years 
it had been nominally a part of Chippewa County, which was never organized, 
but the real beginning of its history was in 1871, when John Fadden was granted 
a ferry charter across the Red River at that point at $21 per annum for a period 
of five years. July 3, 1871, Grand Forks was established as a polling place, the 
precinct commencing at the mouth of Turtle River, thence up that stream fifteen 
miles and then due south to the Goose River, thence down that stream to its 
mouth and up the Red River to the place of beginning. September 4, the place 
of beginning was changed to the mouth of Park River and west to the Pembina 
mountains. Thomas Walsh, John Fadden and S. C. Code were appointed judges 
of election, and the first election was held at the house of John Stuart, at the 
site of the present City of Grand Forks. 

In 1873 Grand Forks County was established by act of the Legislature, and 
George B. Winship, John W. Stuart and Ole Thompson were appointed by the 
Legislature to organize the county. Its boundaries as then organized were later 
changed, a part going to Walsh County and a part to Nelson. 

In 1873 Frank Veits, who had been in business two years at Georgetown, 
took charge of the interests of the Hudson's Bay Company at Grand Forjcs, 
including their Northwestern Hotel, and in 1875 purchased their interests in 
store, hotel and town property. In 1877 he built a 50-barrel-a-day flouring mill, 
an improvement of greater importance to NortVi Dakota than any other at that 
time, settlers coming from points as far as one hundred miles with grist to be 
ground at this mill. He built the Veits House, later known as the Richardson, 
and later he and associates built the Dakota House. 

Among the first settlers at Grand Forks, in 1871, were Capt. Alexander 
Griggs, Michael L. McCormack and Thomas Walsh, the latter bringing a saw- 
mill. Nick Huffman kept the stage station, John Fadden the ferry, W. Clark 
and D. F. Reeves, George B. Winship, William Budge. These, with the Hud- 
son's Bay Company store and hotel were about all of Grand Forks in 1871. 

Reeves built several boats that summer at Grand Forks. The engine from 
the Walsh sawmill was finally sent to Winnipeg and used on the Saskatchewan. 
Burbank, Blakely & Carpenter put on a line of stages from Fort Abercrombie to 
Pembina in 1871. The Hudson's Bay Company had maintained a post at George- 

524 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 525 

town for many years prior to 1873, when they moved to Grand Forks. They 
had stations also at Frog Point (now Belmont), Traill County and Goose River 
(now Caledonia), and at Red Lake. Their post at Red Lake was established 
in 1797 and in 1801 a post was established and for several years maintained at 
Grand Forks. 

LARIMORE, GRAND FORKS COUNTY 

Larimore takes its name from N. G. Larimore, principal owner and 
general manager of the Elk Valley Farm, which immediately adjoins the city. 
The farm consists of 15,000 acres, of which 10,000 are under cultivation. In 
the plowing season plows start on this farm at breakfast and without stump, 
stone, or other obstruction, make a furrow six miles in length and in returning 
make another of the same length before dinner. In the afternoon they repeat, 
men, teams and plows traveling twenty-four miles daily. The teams in plowing, v 

seeding and harvesting go in gangs. The forty-three harvesters, cutting 600 
acres daily, form an impressive scene. 

The selections of land for this farm were made soon after the surveys in 
1878, and the opening of the land to settlement in 1879. Then Larimore was 
conceived and in 1881 the site was laid out. The railroad reached Larimore 
December 25, 1881. The city was laid out on the lands of the Elk Valley Farm- 
ing Company, and Senator W. N. Roach became the agent for the sale of lots. 

Senator Roach landed at Larimore in August, 1879, and opened the stage 
line from Grand Forks to Devils Lake, carrying the first mail, being the con- 
tractor. 

The railroad was completed to Larimore Christmas Day, 1881, from Grand 
Forks, and from Casselton to Larimore in 1883. In 1884 it was extended to 
Park River. 

Beginning with 1882, Larimore entered upon a boom period lasting about 
three years. In 1882 it was the principal trading point for a vast extent of 
country and it prospered beyond comprehension, almost. The lands were pro- \i 
ductive ; prices for products were high and the farming lands were being devel- 
oped, creating a demand for supplies of every class, and its population soon 
exceeded one thousand. The wheat receipts from the crop of 1882 were 300,000 
bushels. 

The railroad grading commenced west of Larimore in September, 1882, and 
reached Devils Lake that fall, and the track laid to Bartlett and to Devils Lake 
the next summer. The country about Larimore developed rapidly and many 
other farms developed, ranging from 320 to 2,500 acres. Here land could only 
be obtained by means of purchase from actual settlers or by the use of the 
various forms of land scrip, limiting the size of farms in comparison with Cass 
and Traill counties, where the odd sections were acquired by the use of dis- , 
credited railroad bonds. 

Visited by the World's Fair Foreign Commissioners in 1893. this farm \/ 

attracted world-wide attention and immediately gained a reputation quite equal 
to the Dalrymple Farm and the Grandin farms of even greater acreage. 

Col. O. M. Towner located the land for this farm and it was through his 
agency the title was acquired for the Missouri corporation which owned it. 



526 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Other noted farms in this vicinity were the New York Farm, owned by James 
H. Mathews, the Hersey Farm, by D. H. Hersey, and the Emery Farm at 
Emerado. 

CASS COUNTY — WHY THE LARGE FARMS WERE ESTABLISHED 

Before the failure of the Northern Pacific Raih^oad Company in 1873, Cas- 
selton was selected by George W. Cass and Peter B. Cheney, leading spirits in 
the Northern Pacific enterprise and directory, as the site of an experimental 
farm, with a view to proving the fertility of the Northern Pacific lands. 

It was conceived that timber could be planted along the right of way of tlie 
\, Northern Pacific Railroad, and that it would not only afford protection from 

snow, answering the purpose of snow fences, but it would furnish timber to 
replenish the ties as those in use fell into decay. It was thought that by planting 
willow and cottonwood in the first instance, settlers could be supplied from the 
right of way, or from the nurseries, which it was intended to establish every 
twenty miles, and thus encourage the general planting of timber which would 
modify the climate, break up the winds, and tend to relieve the drouth on the 
plains. Accordingly, in 1872, timber was planted along the right of way from 
Fargo to about Jamestown. Cuttings were procured from the forests along the 
Red River and were plowed under, the prairie sod simply being turned upon 
them. Most of the cuttings were dead before planting, but had they been in 
the best condition not one in a million could have grown, for the ground had not 
been properly prepared to receive them. Eighty thousand dollars was spent in 
this experiment, and it is doubtful if a single tree was produced. 

In the spring of 1873 Col. John H. Stephens, of Alinneapolis, was employed 
to take charge of the tree planting on the Northern Pacific Railroad and he 
established a nursery for growing forest trees at Casselton, placing Mike Smith 
of Minneapolis in charge. Mike planted trees and grew vegetables. 

Smith's house was a Northern Pacific box' car banked with sod to the roof, 
making comfortable quarters even in a 40 degrees below zero temperature; 
being furnished with bunks and his table supplied with "all the luxuries the 
country afforded," prairie chickens and ducks in their season. 

Colonel Stevens was succeeded by Leonard B. Hodges, who took charge of 
the tree planting on the Northern Pacific. William Creswell in 1876 became 
agent for the Northern Pacific Railroad and for their nursery, and postmaster at 
Casselton. 

Colonel Stevens caused a large number of tomato plants to be placed on 
Colonel Lounsberry's homestead at Bismarck. They flourished and gave great 
promise, as did five acres of beans, but a few million grasshoppers came in on a 
gentle breeze and in half an hour there was not a green thing left on the ranch. 

The selection of the Dalrymple farm and Dalrymple to take charge of it 
was an incident of the Northern Pacific failure of 1873. The lands were selected 
by J. B. Power in 1874 and improvements commenced the next year. J. B. 
Power was then agent for the land commissioner of the Northern Pacific Rail- 
road, William A. Howard of Michigan, who was afterwards governor of Dakota 
and died in office. 

About two thousand acres had been ]nit under cultivation and settlers had 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 527 

commenced to come into the country, when in 1877 the townsite was laid' out at 
Cassehon and Wilham Creswell, the company's agent, erected the first dwelling. 

The great Dalrymple farm is in the immediate vicinity of Casselton, a part 
in the corporate hmits. It embraces the Cass, Cheney and Alton farms, and sev- 
eral farms owned by Dalrymple. About fifteen thousand acres in all. The land 
was selected in 1874, was broken in part in 1875, and the first crop in 1876, the 
amount under cultivation being largely increased in 1877-8 and succeeding years. 

It was purchased with discredited Northern Pacific Railroad bonds, some of 
which cost Mr. Cass and his associates par value, and some from 10 to 20 cents 
on the dollar.. The farm was opened as an experiment and for advertising pur- 
poses; it became a bonanza to its owners and led to an era of big farming in 
North Dakota. 

BARNES COUNTY 

This county was created January 4, 1873. Originally the county was called 
Burbank, so named for John A. Burbank, governor of the territory from 1869 
to 1874, but by an act of the Legislature. July 14, 1874, the name was changed 
to Barnes in honor of Alphonso H. Barnes, who was an associate justice of the 
territory at that time. 

The first survey of lands in Barnes County was made by Charles Scott and 
Richard D. Chaney in 1872. Their work was approved by the surveyor general 
in January, 1873, and filed in the land office at Pembina in September, 1873. 
The lands were made subject to preemption and homesteading May 19, 1873. 

The first settlers were at Valley City in 1872. County Commissioners Christian 
Anderson, Otto Becker and A. J. Goodwin, appointed by Governor William A. 
Howard, organized the county, August 5, 1878. There is no record of their 
doings. The new board, elected in 1878 were. Christian Anderson, F. P. Wright 
and Chris Paetow. L. D. Marsh qualified as register of deeds, Joel S. Weiser 
as county treasurer, D. D. McFadden as sheriff, E. W. Wylie as assessor, Joel 
S. Weiser as justice of the peace. Otto Becker as superintendent of schools, 
James Le Due as coroner, B. W. Benson as judge of probate, at the meeting of 
the board of county commissioners, January 6, 1879. George Worthington and 
L. D. Marsh were the promoters of county organization and dealers in real 
estate. Valley City, at first known as Wahpeton, became Worthington and 
later Valley City. Marsh and Worthington contracted with the railroad com- 
pany that all of the railroad lands in townships 139 and 140, range 58, should 
be reserved for them at $3 per acre, payable in the bonds of the company, then 
worth about nine cents on the dollar, but the contract carried a provision for 
improvements and reserved section 21, in town 140, on which it was proposed 
to build a town. It was agreed, however, that any settler on this reserved land 
should have the privilege of purchasing a town lot at $5, or an acre outlot for 
$5, but to persons other than settlers on the Marsh-Worthington contract the 
price of lots was to be $10, and for acre property $25. Five-acre lots were to 
be sold at $75, and ten-acre at $100. This contract was for the year 1874, but 
there was provision for its extension. 

D. D. McFadden, the oldest settler in Barnes County, filed the first pre- 
emption entry in October, 1873, but had previously raised a crop, 150 bushels 



528 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

of potatoes on six acres, also some wheat, specimens of which were sent to the 
St. Paul fair and received a premium. W. N. Gates made an entry on public 
land November 25, 1874, on section 24, township 140, range 58. 

Other early settlers, with the year of their arrival, were: F. P. Wright, 1874: 
Otto Becker, 'jj; Arne Olson, '"jj; J. S. Weiser, 'yj; James Daly, '76; Christian 
Anderson, '76; Con. Schweinler, '•]■/■, Herman Starkey, '78; Andrew Widen, '78; 
P. P. Persons, '78; Wm. Schultz, '79; Wm. Kemcamp, '79; D. N. Green, '79; 
N. P. Rasmussen, '79; Wylie Nielsen, '79; Hugh McDonald, '79; John Holmes, 
'80; M. E. Mason, '78; Sim Mason, '79; Louis Humble, '79; A. M. Carlson, '78; 
George Larsman, 't] ; A. A. Booth, '79 ; M. O. Walker, '•]•] \ Aaron and Jacob 
Faust, '80; George Stiles, '79; Thomas Olson, '78; Jens Jenson, '78; Robert 
Bailie, '80; Samuel Fletcher, '80; M. B. Hanson, '78; John Lawry, '79; Ben 
Smith, '79; Ed Fox, '80; George W. Critchfield, '78; P. O. King, '78; O. P. 
Hjelde, '80; J. F. Walker, '80; Andrew Andeberg, '79; James Rogers, '78; John 
Marsh, '79; Jacob Baumetz, '78; C. L. Etzell, '79; H. H. Randolph, '80; George 
C. Getchell, '78; John Simons, '79. 

E.'^RLV DAYS AT JAMESTOWN 

In 1872 there was a post established at Jamestown, at first called Fort Cross, 
in honor of Major Edwards' old commander, but later changed to Seward, in 
honor of William H. Seward. Camp Thomas was the immediate predecessor 
of Fort Cross. The same year Fort McKean was established opposite Bismarck, 
but was changed in name to Fort Abraham Lincoln. Its immediate predecessor 
was Camp Greene. At the same time Camp Hancock was established at Bis- 
marck. 

Captain Thomas was the first in command at Jamestown, but the command- 
ing officer at Fort Seward was Captain Bates, son of Attorney General Bates, 
of Lincoln's cabinet. Later, Capt. J. H. Patterson. Capt. Thomas Hunt was 
the quartermaster. In December, 1873, Colonel Lounsberry paid $75 for a team 
to take him from Bismarck to Jamestown. The only settler between Bismarck 
and Jamestown was Oscar Ward, five miles east of Bismarck. There was a dug- 
out covered with railroad ties kept by the section foreman about where Sterling 
is and a discharged soldier (Sam McWilliams) had a dug-out and shanty at Crystal 
Springs. There were a few persons at Jamestown. Vincent kept the section 
house at Lake Eckelson, Flood kept a stopping place at Valley City, Mike Smith 
at Casselton, and Mrs. Bishop at Mapleton. There was a place kept by Duffy, 
also, in the vicinity of Tower City. 

A. W. Kelly, the first settler at Jamestown, was born at Calais, Maine, Decem- 
ber 17, 1832, and came to Fort Abercrombie in July, 1861. On the way to Aber- 
crombie, for which point he left St. Paul on the day of the battle of first Bull 
Run, he met the regular troops from Abercrombie, they having been relieved by 
a portion of the Third Minnesota, under Captain Inman. He was later at George- 
town and sawed the lumber for the International, built by J. C. Burbank & Co., 
to nm between Abercrombie and Winnipeg. The first boat was the Ans. 
Northrup, which was built at St. Anthony, as the H. M. Rice, sent up the Missis- 
sippi to near Brainerd and hauled overland to Georgetown. It was pulled over 
the rapids at Sauk Rapids by means of ropes, this in 1859. In 1861 Mr. Bur- 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 529 

bank bought the old Freighter, which had been running on the Minnesota River, 
sent it up to Big Stone Lake and tried to get it over into the Red River by water, 
but it was a day or two late and it became stranded. The machinery was taken 
out, hauled overland to Georgetown, where the International was built, as stated, 
and sold to the Hudson's Bay Company. The next boat was built by Hill, Griggs 
& Co., the Selkirk, in 1871. 

Mr. Kelly was quartermaster's clerk at Wadsworth the winter of 1865-66 
and was the contractor at Fort Totten, built in 1867. Having a lot of surplus 
beeves when the Northern Pacific came to be extended, he drove 130 head down 
to Jamestown, where he located on May 9, 1872, and in December of that year 
became postmaster, which position he held until Mr. Cleveland came into office 
in 1885, when he resigned. 

After Mr. Kelly, Robert Macnider was the next to locate at Jamestown, 
where he opened a stock of goods in a tent. Nathan Myrick was next with a 
post trader's store, also in tents. F. C. Myrick had charge. George W. Vennum 
and Archibald McKechnie were the next to locate, and they erected a large tent 
for hotel purposes, which they called the Cabinet. Within ten days several others 
came, among them Loring, Black & Co., of Minneapolis, with the railroad supply 
store. Smith & Bussey established the Jamestown Hotel, also in a tent. The 
Chapman House tent was also erected. John Mason established a wholesale 
liquor tent, with James Lees in charge. John Clayton (Limpy Jack), Mike 
Norton, Jacob Fra, Pat Moran and Jack White, afterwards famous in Bismarck, 
were in the saloon business, all in tents. Sullivan ran a dance house and H. T. 
Elliott a blacksmith shop. A little later Hubbard, Raymond & Allen established 
a store. John Whalen had charge. That fall they sold to Belmont Clark and 
Ward Bill and in the spring Raymond & Allen established a store at Bismarck, 
followed by Clark & Bill, Robert Macnider, Jack White, John Mason, and others. 

Kelly, Lees, Moran, Clayton, Fra, Vennum, H. C. Miller, George J. Good- 
rich and his sons, J. W^ and Talcott, remained at Jamestown. Then Dennis Kelli- 
her, who had come up from the Union Pacific with Colonel Brownson, agent at 
Bismarck, took the section house and made a fortune in hotel keeping at James- 
town, but fortunes must be carefully guarded in order to abide and Dennis died 
poor. His hotel was popular and diverted much of the trade from the Dakota 
in its early days. 

Later Mr. Kelly put in a store and Myrick having sold his establishment to 
H. C. Miller, Kelly and Miller were the only merchants at Jamestown for several 
years. Anton Klaus was the first to break in on them. In the very early days 
L. G. Bouret had run a store and saloon in connection with his beef contract for 
Fort Seward. He gave the outfit, building and all, to Joseph Perre. 

Stutsman County, named for the late Hon. Enos Stutsman, of Pembina^ was 
created January 4, 1873, and organized June 20th, with A. W. Kelly, George W. 
Vennum and H. C. Miller, county commissioners. George W. Vennum was 
appointed register of deeds and county clerk ; Archibald McKechnie, sheriff ; 
Henry T. Elliott, assessor; A. B. Innis and George J. Goodrich, justices of the 
peace ; Chas. D. Thompson and Myrick Moore, constables ; F. C. Myrick, auditor, 
and Patrick Moran, judge of probate and ex-officio county treasurer. The liquor 
license was fixed at $30 per annum, and this seems to have been the only source 
of revenue until 1879, when the first taxes were levied. The liquor licenses issued 



530 EARLY HISTORY OF NORfH DAKOTA 

in 1873 were to Thompson & McKechnie, Phillip A. Baigs, Patrick Moran, L. G. 
Bouret, Mike Norton, James Lees and Jacob Fra. Groff resigned and S. G. 
Comstock was retained as county attorney, though living in Moorhead. The 
Bismarck Tribune was the official paper. There was an election held in 1872. 
but there was no record kept of it. The election of 1873 was at the home of 
H. T. Elliott, and A. W. Kelly, Frank C. Myrick and Antoine Pelisser were the 
judges of election. 

At the first meeting the board of county commissioners voted their pay to 
the county. The total expense of the county up to January 5, 1874, was $89.35, 
and there was then a balance in the treasury- of $68.05. Thomas B. Harris, who 
was the first station agent, was county auditor later, and Hugh McChesney, who 
was an employe at Fort Seward, was later judge of probate. 

The Jamestown town organization was made by the county commissioners at 
their session of June 20, 1873, when Duncan R. Kennedy, Merritt Wiseman and 
T. B. Harris were appointed supervisors and F. C. Myrick clerk. 

There seems to have been an aching void in the matter of office-holding in 
1875 ^nd 1876. The records do not show any meetings of the board, but then 
there were no taxes, and offices without taxes are not popular. In 1876 Kelliher 
was elected to the Legislature, but he was kicked out the last day of the session 
in order to give his contestant mileage and per diem. H. C. Miller was then 
sheriff, Ed Lohnes, who carried the mail to Fort Totten, and J. W. Goodrich, 
were his deputies. 

In 1878 the first provision of record was made for a county building and for 
proper record books. L'p to that time the records are on foolscap, bound with 
brown paper. The old courthouse was erected in 1879 by Peter Aubertin of 
Fargo, at a cost of $2,194. The new courthouse was built in 1883 at a cost of 
$35,000. It is modeled after the courthouse of Jefferson County, Wis. 

The real life of Jamestown commenced in 1878, when Edward Koffer 
resurveyed the townsite for the railroad company and Anton Klaus located and 
purchased his interests. The courthouse and all of the churches, excepting the 
Episcopal, are on the Klaus tract. He built the Dakota, later the Gladstone, and 
is entitled to be designated the father of Jamestown. 

THE FIRST SETTLER AT W.^HPETON 

Morgan T. Rich, for whom Richland County was named, made the first settle- 
ment at Wahpeton July 22, 1869. Mr. Rich visited the Red River \'alley in 1864, 
when he crossed over the plains from Fort Ridgeley, Minn., to Helena, Mont., as 
one of a party having 122 wagons going to the mines. They were escorted to 
the Missouri River by Minnesota troops, and from Fort Rice, on the Missouri 
River, to Glendive, Mont., by General Sully, whose command numbered about 
four thousand cavalry and mounted infantry, and he had a train of two hundred 
or more wagons of his own. Anson Northrap was his wagon master. 

Arriving at Glendive, Rich's party crossed the Yellowstone, intending to go 
over the mountains directly from that point, but were turned back by Indian 
alarms, and went down the Yellowstone to old Fort Union, and from thence 
without escort on to Helena, on the north side of the Missouri, via Forts Peck 
and Benton, and Great Falls. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 531 

Captain Rich remained in Montana till 1868, when he returned to his old 
home at Red \\ ing, and in 1869 came to the Red River \'alley and located at 
AX'ahpeton, as stated. The St. Paul & Pacific Railroad had then been extended 
as far west as Smith Lake, in Wright County, Minn., and was pushing on toward 
the Red River. 

Rich remained alone at Wahpeton until IMay, 1871, entertaining an occasional 
immigrant en route down the valley. His garden was known as a model, and 
Mr. Rich as a successful farmer in a small way. He secured a ferrj- charter 
from the commissioners of Pembina County, and by the time immigration com- 
menced in 18/1 was ready to transfer the wanderers across the Bois des Sioux, 
near its confluence with the Ottertail. These streams united from the Red River. 
Mr. Rich operated the fern,- until 1876, when a bridge was built by subscription. 

In IVIay, 1871, Mr. Rich was joined by Alvah Chezik, ^latt Lawrence and 
Simon Woodsum, young men without families. In Jiily- ^ party of forty or more 
settlers, en route from Yankton to the Goose River country, camped at Richville, 
as the place of the ferry was then called. Two of these, viz. : William Root and 
\^"illiam Cooper, returned in a day or two. Root having purchased at McCauley- 
ville a claim adjoining that of Rich, on which Mr. Trott had made improvements. 
Rich's claim became the original plat of Wahpeton and Root's an addition. 
Cooper was accidentally killed while hunting. Root is still in Richland County. 

Folsom Dow, J- W. Blanding, and J. O. Burbank were the first settlers after 
Captain Rich, and Folsom Dow was appointed the first postmaster at Richville, 
as Wahpeton was at first called. It appears on the first records as Chahinkapa, 
signifying the end of the woods, but the name was not acceptable, and never came 
into general use. Valley City was then known as Wahpeton, but before its post- 
orfice was established Richville postoffice was changed to Wahpeton, taking its 
name from the Indian tribe of the vicinity. 

In 1872, Samuel and Benjamin Taylor settled at Wahpeton and opened up 
farms, Samuel having a farm of 640 acres and Benjamin 960. Root had broken 
forty acres the season before and there was a fann of forty acres or more in 
connection with the military post at Fort Abercrombie. The Formanecks, father 
and sons, and other families related to Chezik, had come in from Wisconsin. 

Major M. H. Bovee, of national reputation, from having given the republican 
party its name on its organization in 1856, came with D. Wilmot Smith, and Ran- 
som Phelps and M. P. Propper were among the early settlers. Mr. Bovee moved 
to Morton County. 

Richland County was organized in 1873. J- W. Blanding, D. Wilmot Smith 
and M. T. Rich were the first county commissioners. Hugh R. Blanding was 
clerk and register of deeds, William Root, sheriff and assessor. Ransom Phelps, 
judge of Probate. Emma A. Blanding, superintendent of public instruction, John 
O. Burbank, treasurer and county surveyor, Albert Chezik, constable, George B. 
Spink and Washington Howe, justices of the peace. Frank Herrick was overseer 
of Road District No. i, L. J. Moore of District No. 2, and David Lubenow of 
District No. 3. The county seat was located at Wahpeton, then called Chahinkapa. 

In connection with his ferry, M. T. Rich laid out the townsite of \^'ahpeton. 
Next to his house, the first building erected was a store by Jacob Mourin, who 
was killed by lightning while washing windows, within a month from the time he 
opened up for business. John Kotscheaver succeeded him and remained in trade 



532 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

till 1885, when he was succeeded by his brother, Jacob. M. T. Rich and John Q. 
Burbank erected a building 16x22, which was used for county purposes after the 
organization of the county. 

Miss Mary Keating, afterwards Mrs. Shea, taught the first school at Wahpeton, 
and Miss Sarah Rich, the second. 

BURLEIGH COUNTY ORGANIZED 

Burleigh County was organized by the appointment of John P. Dunn, James 

A. Emmons and Wm. H. H. Mercer, county commissioners, by Governor John L. 
Pennington. They met on July 16, 1873, and appointed as officers Dan Williams, 
register of deeds; J. S. Carvelle, judge of probate; John E. Wasson, county 
attorney; Wm. Woods, sheriff; and Dr. B. F. Slaughter, coroner. They met 
again on the following day and appointed Linda W. Slaughter superintendent of 
schools. 

In the spring of 1873 Mrs. Slaughter and her sister. Miss Aidee Warfield, 
organized the "Bismarck Academy," which they taught gratuitously until x\ugust, 
when a school district organization was effected, and it became the free public 
school of the district and was held in the new Congregational Church then situ- 
ated on the present courthouse block, with Miss Warfield as teacher. This formed 
the beginning of the present splendid school system of Burleigh County. 

The following is a hst of the old settlers who came to Burleigh County before 
the completion of the railroad on June 5, 1873. All those marked with a * came 
to Burleigh County prior to May i, 1872: 

*Louis Agard, Jesse Ayers, *Wm. Anderson, Charles Archer, *P. H. Byrnes, 
*George Bridges, Ed Burke, *N. W. Comerford, Joe Bush, *John Coleman, 
J. Collins, J. S. Carvelle, *S. H. Carahoof, Joe Courtous, *Ed Donahue, John 
Duffee, T. P. Davis, J. A. Emmons, *Mike Foley, George Framer, A. Gilbert, 
*Barney Aaron, I. C. Adams, *Strong Beer, J. B. Bailey, *E. N. Corey, Geo. 
Cunningham, John Camahan, R. M. Douglas, Dan Eisenberg, Robert Farrell, 
J. B. Ford, *C. A. Galloway, *F. F. Girard, W. Hollowbush, Wm. Howard, H. U. 
Holway, Peter Dupree, Joe Dowling, Fred Edgar, *Mike Feller, R. Farrell, 
J. M. Oilman, *A. Agard, .Sam Ashton, *Harry Rose, Geo. Buswell, *C. Collins, 
*John Conrad, C. M. Clarck, *Joe Deitrich, *Harry Duffee, John P. Dunn, 

B. Egan, A. Fisher, *Gias. Gray, G. Galbraith, J. M. Guppy, *John Hogan, 

*L. Hunter, M. A. Hutchins, Hildebrand, C. A. Lounsberry, *J. A. Joyce, 

M. H. Kellogg, Wm. Lawrence, *W. H. H. Mercer, *C. H. McCarthy, *Bernard 
Martin, J. C. Miller, R. R. Marsh, A. McDonald, Fred Miller, *R. O'Brien, 
P. Ostlund, '''John H. Richards, Wm. Regan, *John Schwartz, W. B. Shaw, 
B. Frank Slaughter, G. G. Thomas, *E. A. Williams, James Wickerson, Ed 
Whalen, R. D. Gutschell, *John J. Jackman, D. R. Kagonie, *Barney Lanningan, 
Con Lowney, *Joe Miller, *Sam McWilliams, *J. G. Malloy, R. L. Donigal, H. M. 
Neil, Chris Hehli, John Mason, Thomas McGowan, E. O'Brien, J. W. Proctor, 
Dan Rice, Thos. Riley, *J. S. Souter, F. S. Snow, *Jos. PL Taylor, *Dan Williams, 
Thomas Welch, John Whalen, Lovet Gill, *Jake Houser, *Edmond Hackett, 
Albert Hill, Dennis Hannafin, N. H. Knappen, R. Lambert, Chas. Louis, *J. D. 
McCarty, *D. W. McCall, *D. W. Marshall, J. M. Marsh, John McDevitt, Mike 
McLear, Ed Morton, M. O'Brien, John Ostlund, John Ross, E. J. Robinson, H. N. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 533 

Ross, *Henry Suttle, *William Smith, Pat Smith, M. Tippie, *C. W. Vandegrift, 
John E. Mason, *Wm. Woods, Wm. Sebrey, John Sebrey, Jerry Haly, F. C. Hol- 
lenibeck, A. Harvey, *John Kahl, *John Luther, S. F. Lambert, *Adam Mann, 
John McCarthy, *Peter Malloy, *John W. Millet, L. T. Marshall, Barney McCoy, 
E. McDonald, A. McNeil, P. O'Brien, *J. W. Plummes, *Frank Riley, Thos. 
Reynolds, J. C. Miller, *John Skelly, N. Leverane, Chas. Tobin, B. T. Williams, 
Alfred Walker, John White, Mike Whalen, *Geo. A. Joy. 

WALSH COUNTY EARLY HISTORY 

In 1862 Walsh County was included in a region known as Kittson County, 
and in 1867 was included in Pembina County, which then extended from the Red 
River west, taking in Cavalier County, and south to the Sheyenne. Voting pre- 
cincts were established at Park River, now in Walsh, Stump Lake, now in Nelson, 
Dead Island, now in Cavalier, and Sheyenne, now in Cass, the latter taking in 
most of Walsh, Grand Forks, Traill and Richland counties. The voting place was 
near Georgetown, then a Hudson's Bay post. 

In 1871 the Grand Forks Precinct was established, taking in Grand Forks, 
and part of Walsh and Traill counties, and west to the Pembina Mountains. The 
voting place was at the house of James Stuart at Grand Forks. Thomas Walsh, 
S. C. Code and John Fadden were appointed judges of election. The northern 
limits of the precinct were Park River, the Goose River formed the southern 
boundary and the crest of the Pembina Mountains the western boundary. 

WALSH COUNTY ORGANIZED 

In 1873 Grand Forks and Cass counties were created from a part of Pembina, 
and in 1881 Walsh from parts of Grand Forks and Pembina, and was organized 
August 30, 1881, Governor Ordway having appointed George P. Harvey, Wilham 
Code and Benjamin C. Askelson county commissioners. They appointed Jacob 
Reinhardt, sheriff; E. O. Faulkner, judge of probate; K. O. Skatteboe, treasurer; 
Eugene Kane, surveyor; Dr. N. H. Hamilton, coroner; Dr. R. M. Evans, super- 
intendent of schools; John Harris, Charles Finkle, J. A. Delaney and William 
Richie, justices of the peace. John Ross, Thomas Trainor, G. W. Gilbert and 
Whitefield Durham, constables. P. J. McLaughlin was later appointed state's 
attorney and John N. Nelson assessor. The judge appointed W. A. Cleland clerk 
of the court, and under a special act of the Legislature Edwin O. Faulkner became 
the first county auditor. 

Settlements commenced on points on the Red River in 1870, and in 1874 title 
was secured to lands in Walshville in anticipation of laying out a village. A town 
was later laid out at Acton, then known as Kelly's Point, by Antoine Girard, and 
here the first mercantile interests, aside from the old Indian and Hudson's Bay 
posts, were established by Jacob Eshelman, William Budge and W. J. Anderson. 

In 1881 and the following year settlers commenced making their homes on 
the Red River, on the Park and the Forest, and by 1881. when the county was 
created, it is estimated there were 800 people in the county. School districts 
and towns had been organized either as a part of Grand Forks or Pembina and 
Acton had become a village, and a newspaper, the Acton News, later moved to 
Grafton, becoming a part of the News and Times, had been established. 



534 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Grafton was an incident of the railroad construction of 1881. The land on 
which it was located was entered in 1878 by T. E. Cooper, who secured the estab- 
lishment of a postofifice early next year, and in July, 1879, regular mail service 
from Acton to Sweden via Grafton was commenced. The postofifice was called 
Grafton, in memory of Mrs. Cooper's old home in Grafton, New Hampshire. 
Mr. Cooper built the first hotel at Grafton. 

The first teacher in the schools of Grafton was Joseph Cleary. He was suc- 
ceeded by Mr. W. J. Shumway. Mr. Shumway was assisted by Mrs. E. S. Mott. 
Mr. Shumway was succeeded by Mr. A. McCuUy as principal. Mr. McCully 
was assisted by Mr. D. C. Ross and Miss Kate Driscoll. The schools were not 
thoroughly graded until the fall of 1885. The territorial Legislature of 1885 
passed an act creating the City of Grafton a special independent district ; the 
government of the schools is today under the same act, and it has been found on 
the whole satisfactory. 

This act was approved by the governor March 9, 1885, and the first board 
under that was elected April 7, 1885. It consisted of five members, two at large 
and one member for each of the three wards. This board consisted of Messrs. 
William Tierney, C. A. M. Spencer, H. C. Upham, F. E. Chase and E. O. Faulk- 
ner. The board organized with F. E. Chase as president and E. O. Faulkner clerk. 
Its first business was to bond the district for $15,000 to erect the main part of 
the central building. This was built during the summer of 1885. It is two stories 
high, built of brick and contains six large school and two recitation rooms. In 
August, 1885, Mr. J. C. P. Miner, a graduate of Harvard University, was engaged 
as principal, with Misses Mary D. Mattison, Kate Driscoll and Lucy Killeen as 
assistants. 

PARK RIVRR 

Park River was a wheat field in 1884 and the wheat was removed to make 
way for the townsite and was first known as Kensington. 

The first settler in the vicinity of Park River for agricultural purposes was 
Charles G. Oaks, an old Hudson's Bay Company employe, who settled at what 
was afterward known as Kensington in November, 1878, and those who came 
later constituted what became known as the Scotch settlement. The next and 
now the recognized oldest settler, was Charles F. Ames, who settled January 16, 
1879. Among the other names recalled by the old settlers were William and 
Alex Bruce, James Smith, George Brown, James Maloney, Ed Carman and 
George Kennedy. Hans Robertson was the first in the Norwegian neighborhood 
and dates his settlement also from January, 1879. There were no settlers west of 
him at that time and few indeed between what is now Park River and Grand 
Forks. Accompanying Hans Robertson were Andrew Y. Anderson, Thomas 
Thompson, Iver Iverson and Knud K. Halstad and Peter Sager. The Kensington 
settlers came from Canada ; the Scandinavians from Iowa, stopping first, how- 
ever, in Traill County. 

In 1879 Charles H, Honey and John Wadge, brothers-in-law, came from their 
Canadian home in Kensington, where they selected land. 

Wadge remained and Honey came on the next season, followed by other 
relatives and friends. Other settlers in 1879 were Thomas W'adge, George Nick- 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 535 

lin, William, Edward and Benjamin Code, William Craig, E. O. Faulkner, John 
and Fred Robb, Peter Campbell, Alexander Smith, William Davis, R. B. Hunt, 
William Burbridge and John Baird. 

The postoffice was established at Kensington in February, 1880, with E. O. 
Faulkner postmaster. It was served from Sweden. Later the office was moved 
to the home of C. H. Honey, Mr. Faulkner having become county auditor, and 
later it was discontinued and Park River established in its stead, when C. H. 
Honey became the first postmaster at Park River. 

THE CANADIANS CELEBRATE JULY 4 

An amusing incident is related of the first settlers in the Scotch settlement. 
The settlers all came from Canada and knew little of the customs of the people 
of the United States and still less of their traditions,' but they had sworn allegiance 
to the Government and felt in honor bound to celebrate its natal day. Accord- 
ingly a preliminary meeting was held for the arrangement of a program and 
during the rambling discussion some one suggested that the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence should be read. "And what is that?" was the quick response from the 
crowd. Accordingly Thomas Catherwood, the settlement's first teacher, was 
called upon to read it for the information of the meeting. It was at once recog- 
nized as a fit thing to be presented on such an occasion. 

In the fall of 1879 the grass was especially heavy. At some points it was 
higher than a hOrse and generally on the low lands as high as a wagon box. 
A dense smoke indicated a prairie fire. The settlers turned out and plowed a 
fire break three furrows wide and eight miles long, but it had no greater efl^ect 
than a tow string toward stopping the progress of the fire. Hay stacks went up 
in flame when the fire apparently was still fifteen rods away. John Robb of the 
force making the fire breaks was caught by the flames and, unable to escape, 
rushed through them. His heavy beard and brows were completely burned. It 
was a close shave, literally, and it was a narrow escape for his life. The cattle 
escaped to the river and it was hours before they could be gotten from their place 
of refuge. 

By June, 1880, almost every claim was taken, the settlers coming in in groups 
of all sizes, from two or three families up to twenty. The "prairie schooners" 
were seen moving at all times of day and in every direction the squatters were 
seen making the improvements necessary to hold their claims. There was no 
opportunity for large farms. Few indeed suceeded in securing more than one 
claim of 160 acres. Occasionally a son, daughter or sister, or acommodating 
friend used their rights to help out the family. The land was not surveyed till 
1879 and not open to filing until 1880. 

Most of the early settlers took claims near the river and divided up the timber 
partly in a spirit of accommodation and partly in order to bring the settlement 
closer together. Hence most of the first claims were a quarter of a mile wide and 
a mile long. 

BOTTINEAU COUNTY 

Bottineau County was created by act of Dakota Legislature, January 4, 1873. 
It was named for Pierre Bottineau, probably the first white child born in North 



5;^6 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Dakota, about i8i2. He was born to a family of French voyageurs associated 
with the fur companies then trading with the Indians at all points in North Dakota 
where furs were caught or accumulated, engaging often with the Indians on the 
buffalo hunts. Charles Bottineau, a brother of Pierre, was the first considerable 
farmer in North Dakota, and as early as 1870 had a farm of about one hundred 
acres under cultivation at Neche, where he had been engaged in farming long 
before any particular attention had been attracted to the Red River Valley. Indeed 
the first settlement in the valley for agricultural purposes was in the fall of 1870 
and spring of 1871, while the census of 1870 shows about 1,200 halfbloods in 
North Dakota. They practically all originated from the voyageurs and traders 
connected with the Hudson's Bay Company, occupying the lower Red River 
country, and the American Fur Company, occupying the upper Missouri River 
and its tributaries as well as the James. Both classes occupied the Pembina and 
Turtle mountains and became associated with what is known as the Turtle 
Mountain band of Indians now numbering about three thousand. Some of these 
Were of Canadian origin and some of American, but whether American or 
Canadian they roamed over the prairies hunting, now selling their catch to traders 
in the field or taking them to Fort Garry, now Winnipeg, where churches and 
schools were built and they were taught in the ways of civilization. 

They congregated for a time at White Earth, Minn. Some of them were 
drawn into the Riel rebellion in Manitoba and many received land and other 
benefits in Canada after the settlement of that affair, even though of American 
origin. The real estate speculators of Winnipeg followed them to this side of 
the line and paid their expenses to that city and return in their efforts to get them 
to claim land which it was desired to buy. Many yielded, signing papers and taking 
money without knowing what they were doing, being called upon only to touch 
the pen and take the money that was offered them. 

In 1870 they settled in the Turtle Mountain region and claimed under alleged 
treaty rights practically the whole country north of Devils Lake and west of the 
Red River. This was so far recognized as to assign them by executive order 
thirty-six townships and this was later reduced to two townships, situated just 
west of Rolla. The remainder was thrown open to settlement, which commenced 
in Bottineau County in 1883. 

In 1882 there were not a dozen settlers in the county. Three years later there 
were 818, and the Great Northern road was soon afterwards extended to Botti- 
neau, the terminus of the Rugby and Bottineau branch. Then but 120 acres of 
land had been entered and the total wheat product of the county was but 8,016 
bushels, but two years later the wheat crop was 149,079 bushels. The acres 
improved in 1885 were 7,215. The county early devoted attention to stock and 
in 1885 had sheep producing 2,554 pounds of wool. It then had nearly two thou- 
sand head of cattle. 

Bottineau County was organized March 13, 1884, by the appointment by the 
governor of William F. Simerall, Albert C. Barnes and Lorenzo D. Dana county 
commissioners. The first meeting of the board was July 17th, when Mr. Dana 
was elected chairman. John W. G. Simerall was appointed register of deeds; 
Louis P. LeMay, sheriff; Alex McBain, assessor; Archibald Finlayson, treasurer; 
J. B. Sinclair, surveyor; Rev. Ezra Turner, superintendent of schools; William 
Stewart and George Gagnon, justices of the peace; Peter Ferguson, Francis X. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 537 

Junea, constables. Later J. N. Greiner was appointed justice of the peace and 
J. B. Sinclair, road supervisor, and Alex. C. Barnes, clerk of court. 

Robert Brander entered the land on which Bottineau is situated, the home- 
stead of Alex. Sinclair also forming a part of the city. 

ROLETTE COUNTY 

Rolette County was created by act of the Legislature, January 4, 1873, when 
North Dakota was first divided into counties. Until then the eastern portion was 
known as Pembina County, while that portion east of the Missouri and west 
of the James was a part of what is now Buffalo County, South Dakota, which 
then embraced most of the northern part of what is now North Dakota. In 
1883 Tower County was created from Rolette, and its boundaries were further 
changed and established as now, March 11, 1887. Rolette County was organized 
November 6, 1885, by the appointment by the governor of the following county 
commissioners, viz. : James Maloney, Jasper Jeanotte and Arthur Foussard. 
Jeanotte and Foussard failed to qualify, and Fred Schutte and Lemuel M. Mel- 
ton of Dunseith were appointed in their stead. 

They organized at Dunseith, October 14, 1884, and Fred Schutte was chosen 
chairman. Courtland P. Clements was appointed register of deeds ; James Elton, 
judge of probate ; F. E. Farrell, county superintendent of schools ; James D. 
Eaton, county treasurer ; Barney Cain, sheriff ; Dr. Stephen Howard, coroner ; 
Gavin Hamilton, county attorney. W. H. McKee succeeded Elton as judge of 
probate. Thomas Heskett, L. E. Marchaud, Samuel Shreckengast and Phillip 
T. Metier were appointed justices of the peace, and Thomas Maloney, Lake 
Demo, John McFadden, Moses LaBonty and John Cain, constables. 

Giles M. Gilbert, Lemuel G. Melton and C. G. Oaks were the first settlers 
in that part of the mountains. 

The LaBarge Brothers, Edward and Edmund and Arthur, and Emile Fous- 
sard came in 1881, settling at St. John. They came from Brandon, Manitoba, 
and claim to have led all other settlers, aside from a few half-breeds who came 
as early as 1880. 

The first entries of public lands were made when the plats were filed at the 
Devil's Lake land office by Giles M. Gilbert, Lemuel G. Welton and E. G. Oaks. 
The law requires 30 days' notice to be given to entrymen of the filing of plats 
and proper notice to be given of intention to make proof, but without this notice, 
on the day the plats were open to inspection, Colonel Courtland P. Clements, a 
Colorado friend of Henry M. Teller, U. S. Secretary of the Interior, presented 
himself at the United States land office at Devil's Lake with a letter from Secre- 
tary Teller to the register and receiver directing that they allow proof to be made 
at once on the Gilbert, Melton and Oaks tracts and the entries were accordingly 
completed on the day their filings were made, and the Oaks and Melton entries 
were transferred to M. Ohmer, in the interest of the Dunseith townsite syndicate, 
of which Clements, Schutte, Laubach and Ohmer were members. 

St. John, Rolette County, is one of the oldest trading points in the state, its 
business life dating way back to 1843. Joseph Rolette, WilHam H. Moorhead, 
and others familiar to the history of the later developments of the state, were 
engaged in trade to a greater or less extent at St. John, and one of the early 



\ 



538 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

customs stations was established there. It is now a port of entry with deputy 
collector, and the United States flag flies over the cutsoms office every day of 
the year from sunrise to sunset. Canadians who came into the country at this 
point are required to report and show their respect to the country by saluting 
the old flag and transacting whatever business they may have with the accom- 
modating customs officials. 

WELLS COUNTY 

^\'ells County was originally created in 1873 as Gingras County. The name 
was changed in 1881 to Wells and its boundaries changed in 1883 and 1885. 
It was organized in 1884, with 36 townships, the governor appointing Thomas 
R. Williams, Joseph P. Cox and Marshall Brinton as county commissioners. 

The county seat was originally at Sykeston, established by the Sykes interest 
in connection with their large estates. The construction of the Soo through 
the center of the county resulted in building up Cathay, Fessenden and Harvey, 
and in a county seat contest terminating in favor of Fessenden, where it was 
moved in 1894. The town was named in honor of ex-Surveyor General Fessen- 
den, formerly of Michigan, under whose administration the original surveys in 
the county were made. The county is largely settled by Germans. They own 
farms varying from 160 to 640 acres. 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT, NORTH DAKOT.\ PIONEER 

In 1881 Hiram B. Wadsworth and W. L. Hawley of Minnesota shipped in 
200 head of young cattle for ranging on the plains west of the Little Missouri 
River and established the Maltese Cross ranch. Other ranching interests fol- 
lowed the establishment of the Maltese Cross ranch, but that was the first of 
importance in North Dakota. In 1880 Joseph and Sylvane Ferris and A. W. 
Merrifield came to the Little Missouri region and engaged in hunting. 

In September, 1883, Theodore Roosevelt came to Medora, North Dakota, 
for the purpose of hunting. Joseph Ferris accompanied him on his hunting 
expedition, and on September 17, 1883, on the plains of North Dakota, Mr. 
Roosevelt killed his first buft'alo. On the trip Mr. Roosevelt became interested 
in the subject of stock growing and on his return purchased the Maltese Cross 
herd of cattle and placed them in the hands of Sylvane M. Ferris and A. W. 
Merrifield on the Chimney Butte ranch, seven miles south of Medora. He added 
several hundred head to the bunch that fall and the next year established the 
Elkhorn ranch, thirty-five miles down the river from Medora. This ranch was 
in charge of Sewall and Dow. On the two ranches he had some three thousand 
head of cattle and twice a year visited these ranches and participated in the 
round-up, one season remaining until Christmas. There was no part of the 
work on that ranch in which he did not participate. He was fearless, but none 
of those who rode the range with him or accompanied him on his hunting trips 
recall a single instance wherein he could be said to have been reckless. One day 
one of his employes undertook to frighten him by threats of gim play. Mr. 
Roosevelt took the gun from him and kicked him out of camp. The fellow was 
known as a desperado who was expected to shoot on the slightest provocation. 
He apologized and was restored to his place, but his spirit as a desperado was 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 539 

broken. Theodore Roosevelt was not "Teddy" on the range, but "Mr." Roosevelt 
always, the men showing their respect for him in his absence as well as in his 
presence. In 1906 his son Kermit rode on horseback from Deadwood to Medora, 
accompanied by Hon. Seth Bullock, and spent a few days with the ranch friends 
of Mr. Roosevelt. During his stay at Medora, Mr. Roosevelt was one summer 
deputy sheriff, and was as fearless and faithful in the performance of his duty \' 

as he required his appointees to be. Mrs. Roosevelt visited the ranch in the 
summer of 1890. He retained his interests in North Dakota cattle growing until 
1896, when he closed out with profit. 

After his election as President Mr. Roosevelt wrote as follows : 

White House, Washington, November 10, 1904. 
My Dear Joe and Sylvane : 

No telegram that I received pleased me more than yours, and I thank you 
for it. Give my wann regards to Mrs. Joe, Mrs. Sylvane and all my friends. 

Sincerely yours, 

Theodore Roosevelt, 
The Medora President. 

The logs that were in the Chimney Butte ranch headquarters were taken to 
St. Louis and to Portland and reerected as they appeared on the range, and 
were a leading attraction at the Louisiana Purchse and Lewis and Clark exposi- 
tions, and were then returned to Bismarck, where the Roosevelt cabin became a 
permanent exhibit in the custody of the State Historical Society. 

Marquis de Mores came to North Dakota in April, 1883, a short time before 
Mr. Roosevelt, and invested large sums of money in stock growing and in the 
packing industry, his intention being to grow the stock and kill them on the 
range, shipping in refrigerator cars to the eastern markets. He built a fully ^ 

equipped slaughter house at Medora, with all the appurtenances necessary for the 
economical handling of all of the by-products. He built cold storage houses at 
Bismarck, Fargo, Duluth and other points and carried on an enormous business 
until 1886, when he realized that he was in advance of the times and withdrew, 
returning to France. 

In 1883 Sir John Pindar and Commodore Henry Gorringer became asso- 
ciated in a cattle enterprise near the Roosevelt and De Mores ranches, and 
invested largely in stock growing. Mr. Hostetter also had large investments in 
this vicinity. Hon. A. C. Huidekoper of Pennsylvania and associates became 
interested in this region and afterwards made heavy investments in land and 
stock, closing out in 1906 for the sum of $250,000 to Fred Pabst of the Pabst 
Brewing Company. Pierre Wibaux invested some $200,000 in stock in this region, 
beginning also in the early days. The Eaton brothers of the Custer Trail ranch 
were also among the early factors in the development of that region. The very 
first, however, to establish a stock business west of the Missouri was E. G. 
Paddock, who was engaged in freighting to the cantonment at the Little Missouri ■ 
in 1879. He brought in a herd of cows to supply the cantonment with milk. 

The terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad remained at Bismarck until 
1880, when the work of construction commenced west of the Missouri River. 
The winter preceding a track was laid across the Missouri River on the ice, 
and much of the heavy material was pushed across the river that winter on the 



540 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

iCe bridge. During the construction of. the permanent railroad bridge, built in 
1881-2, costing upwards of $1,500,000, cars were transferred by boat. The road 
crossed the western boundary of the state and was extended to the Yellowstone 
in 188 1. 

THE BURLEIGH COUNTY PIONEERS 

On the evening of December i, 1873, in the log building of Dimmick and 
Tippie, on the comer of Main and Third streets, there was formed an association 
of the early settlers of Bismarck and vicinity called the Burleigh County Pioneers, 
^ whose object, as stated in their constitution, was "to promote the social, business 

and agricultural interests of Bismarck and vicinity." The charter members were 
C. A. Lounsberry, C. H. McCarty, Edward Donahue, Dr. B. F. Slaughter, C. W. 
Freede, H. N. Holway, L. T. Marshall, C. W. Clarke, J. E. W^alker, M. Tippie, 
W. T. McKay, A. C. Tippie, Gus Galbraith, J. W. Raymond and Capt. John W. 
Smith. 

The officers elected were: Dr. B. F. Slaughter, president; Charles H. 
McCarty, vice president; Gus Galbraith, recording secretary; Col. C. A. Louns- 
berry, corresponding secretary; Maj. J. E. Walker, treasurer. 

This society was at once a bureau of immigration, a general intelligence office 
and a board of trade. 

For two years the Pioneers kept two secretaries at work sending out literature 
and answering inquiries from abroad, and Bismarck was the most extensively 
advertised burgh in America. In April, 1874, they fitted up headquarters and a 
^ public reading room in Dr. Slaughter's building on Third street, known as Pioneer 

Hall, which was one of the most attractive places in the city. They accumulated 
a valuable library and elected W. S. Brown, librarian, and W. J. Craw, assistant 
secretary. 

At a meeting held on February 9, 1874, the association resolved to publish a 
pamphlet to advertise the country and to elect a historian, whose duty it should 
be to prepare it. A committee, consisting of M. Tippie, J. B. Bailey and N. H. 
Knappen, was appointed to make the selection, and they chose Mrs. Linda W. 
Slaughter as historian of Pioneers, and she was elected an honorary member of 
the association. Her pamphlet, entitled "The New Northwest — A History of 
\j Bismarck and Vicinity," was in the hands of the secretary within two weeks from 

the date of the resolution. Two thousand copies were printed in the office of 
the Bismarck Tribune, 1,000 of which were mailed by the secretary to all parts 
of the country and the other 1,000 was distributed among the members for 
gratuitous distribution. The good results of this enterprise were soon apparent. 
Immigrants poured in from all quarters and the author of the pamphlet lived to 
see her predictions in regard to the coming greatness of the country fully verified. 

Washington's birthday, February 22. 1874, was observed by the Pioneers by 

a grand ball at the Capitol Hotel. Tickets sold readily at $5 each, and thereafter 

• each year for a number of years at each anniversary of the formation of the society 

an annual ball was held and large sums were realized for the society from the 

sale of tickets. 

Below are the names of the members of the Burleigh County Pioneers recorded 
in their own handwriting in the secretary's book of their constitution and by-laws, 
now in the possession of the State Historical Society : 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 541 

C. A. Lounsberry, C. H. McCarty, Edward Donahue, B. Frank Slaughter, C. 
W. Freede, H. N. Holway, L. T. Marshall, C. W. Clarke, J. E. Walker, M. Tippie, 
W. T. McKay, A. C. Tippie, Gus Galbraith, J. W. Raymond, John W. Smith, 
John Harris, John W. Proctor, Fred C. Hollenbeck, H. N. Ross, Charles A. Gal- 
loway, David Crouther, C. J. Miller, Richard Farrell, Chris Hiehli, Fred W. 
Edgar, Louis Agard, Nicholas Byrnes, T. F. Singhiser, M. L. Marsh, N. H. 
Knappen, S. L. Beckel, Henry Suttle, E. N. Corey, John A. McLean, Robert 
Macnider, J. D. Wakeman, R. D. Jennings, Thomas Van Etten, Mark Warren, 
Edmond Hackett, James A. Emmons, S. E. Doner, Will J. Craw, Henry Dion, 
John P. Forster, J. B. Bailey, R. R. Marsh, William Woods, Alexander McKenzie, 
John A. Stoyell, H. Brownson, Alonzo Murry, I^Iason Martin, L. H. Melton, 
Richard Connelly, John Bowen, Henry Waller, George G. Gibbs, James H. Mar- 
shall, Joseph Pennell, John Wringrose, James Browning, J. O. Simmons, W. 
Ward Bill, John Whalen, S. Lambert, Theodore Shenkenberg, Peter Brasseau, 
Jesse Ayers, William Coleman, William Hollowbush, J. McGee, Josiah Delameter, 
J. P. Dunn, Thomas McGowan, Nicholas Comer, Norman Beck, Isadore Bur- 
lingette, Thomas Reid, Louis Bonin, George Peoples, Asa Fisher, J. H. Lovelle, 
John W. Plummer, Willard S. Brown, J. H. Richards, J. C. Dodge, H. P. Bogue, 
P. H. Galligher, Nicholas Comerford, W. S. Lawrence, Charles F. Hobart, J. C. 
Cady, S. M. Townsend, George Enreigh, N. Dunkleberg, John Mason, John 
Yegen, Joseph Deitrich, L. N. Griffin, Cornelius Collins, T. P. Davis, W. H. H. 
Comer, Charles Saunders, R. Page and Edward B. Ware. 

THE BISMARCK LADIES' HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

The Ladies' Historical Society of Bismarck and North Dakota was formally 
organized in September, 1889. Previously to this it had existed as a little knot 
of ladies in Bismarck, who, having experienced the hardships and isolation that 
marked the early days of settlement in the new city, were drawn together in 
bonds of the closest friendship. Their first meetings were chiefly social and 
were held at the home of Mrs. Slaughter. One peculiarity of their constitution 
was that no dues should be paid, and its membership was at first limited to the 
ladies who had lived in Bismarck during the years 1872 and 1873. It afterwards 
broadened out to admit the wives of the old settlers of those years. At the 
reorganization, in 1889, all ladies who had lived in the territory previous to its 
admission as a state were made eligible to membership, and at its last reorgan- 
ization and incorporation as the North Dakota State Historical Society gentlemen 
were allowed admittance on equal terms. 

The first officers of the ladies' society of the year 1872, who retained their 
positions until the incorporation in 1889, were: President, Linda W. Slaughter; 
board of directors. Lucy Baily, Phoebe A. Marsh, Charlotte H. Davis, Nina B. 
Emmons, Linda W. Slaughter, Mrs. Alice O'Brien. The oldest of the old settler 
ladies was honorary president, and Miss Rosalind C. Slaughter, the youngest, 
was secretary. Mrs. John P. Dunn and Mrs. Winnifred Nichols, settlers of 
1873, were later members. 

Mrs. Alice O'Brien was born in Ireland and came to Bismarck in July, 1872, 
with her husband, Matheus O'Brien. Their family consisted of Mrs. Sebry, the 
aged mother of Mrs. O'Brien, and a large group of sons and daughters. Several 



542 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

of the latter were married to farmers, who were the first to open farms near 
the new city. 

Mrs. Linda W. Slaughter was the wife of Dr. B. Frank Slaughter, post sur- 
geon of Camp Hancock, and came to Bismarck from Fort Rice in August, 1872, 
with her husband and baby. Dr. Slaughter resigned from the army in November, 
1873, to become a citizen of Bismarck, and both husband and wife were iden- 
tified with the leading events of the early years in the new city. Dr. Slaughter 
died December 26, 1896, of paralysis. 

Mrs. Thomas \"an Etten came to Bismarck from Minnesota with her husband 
and family in 1873 ^"d resided on a farm near Bismarck until 1882, when, hav- 
ing realized a large sum from the sale of their land, they returned to their old 
home in Minnesota. Mrs. Van Etten afterwards died of consumption. 

Mrs. Nina B. Emmons was the wife of James A. Emmons, one of the first 
board of commissioners of Burleigh Cotinty, and a leading business man of Bis- 
marck. She came to Bismarck in September, 1872, and was the first bride in Bis- 
marck. They removed to Nebraska in 1885. 

Mrs. Charlotte H. Davis was the wife of Thomas P. Davis, one of the early 
contractors on the Northern Pacific grade. They came to Bismarck in 1872. 
Mr. Davis was killed by accident in Bismarck in 1894 and Mrs. Davis returned 
to her old home in Canada. 

Mrs. Lucy Baily came to Bismarck with her husband, James Buell Baily, in 
August, 1872. They were for some years engaged in the business of hotel keep- 
ing. Mr. Baily died in 1879 and Mrs. Baily in January, 1895. 

Miss Rosalind C. Slaughter, who was for so long the faithful secretary of 
the society, is the daughter of Dr. B. F. and Linda W. Slaughter and was a babe 
in arms when she came to Camp Hancock with her parents in 1872. She attended 
school in Bismarck and Washington, D. C. On October 21, 1896, she was mar- 
ried to Mr. A. W. Dearborn of Eagle Lake, Minn., where she now resides with 
her husband. 

Mrs. Christina Dunn came to Bismarck in 1873 and is the wife of John P. 
Dunn, one of the first board of commissioners of Burleigh County, and long 
engaged as a druggist in Bismarck, where she still resides. Mrs. Dunn is now 
engaged in millinery at Bismarck. 

Mrs. Winnifred Nichols came to Bismarck in 1873 with her husband, John 
Nichols, and their family of children. They long resided on a farm near the 
city. Mr. Nichols died in 1896. Mrs. Nichols and several of their daughters 
now reside in Bismarck. 

Mrs. Phoebe A. Marsh came to Bismarck with her husband, R. R. Marsh, 
from Pennsylvania in 1872 and opened the Capitol Hotel on the present site of 
the Central Block on Main street. They now reside on a farm near Menoken. 

The object of the ladies' society, as stated in their constitution, was to pro- 
mote friendship and good will among the old settlers of Bismarck and Burleigh 
County and to preserve the records of the early history of the county and state 
in correct and permanent form. 

This society having organized under the name of North Dakota State His- 
torical Society, an arrangement was made with them whereby they merged their 
organization into the present State Historical Society, the members of this society 
becoming honorary members of the new organization. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 543 

RANSOM COUNTY 

Early in 1869 a colonization company with Capt. Lafayette Hadley as presi- 
dent came to Owego Township and settled on what, after being surveyed, proved 
to be section 16. They named the company "The Owego Colonization Com- 
pany," platted a townsite and named it Owego after their former home on the 
Susquehanna. Several families came and numerous buildings were erected, and 
the colony prospered for a year or so. During the following summer the male 
members of the colony, who were old enough, all went to work on the Northern 
Pacific Railroad, and an "Indian scare" drove all the families away. The town- 
site scheme was abandoned and the buildings burned by the Indians. Samuel 
Horton was a member of this colony and lived there with his family. 

William Hutchins, the oldest resident- of the county, freighted through the 
county in 1868. At that time there were two residents, John Knudson, a Nor- 
wegian, living on the Sheyenne River on section 2 in Owego Township, and Dave 
Faribault, a half-breed Sioux and nephew of the old Chief Faribault, was living 
on the Sheyenne near the present residence of H. S. Gates. Faribault kept a 
Government station, but his place being out of the direct line of travel, he was 
removed to a point near Owego. called in that day "Pigeon Point," where he 
kept a station for several years. 

The first land was entered in 1870 by Peter Bonner at a point now known 
as Bonnersville on the Sheyenne River. 

A little later Herman and Helmuth Schultz and F. Baguhn settled in Owego 
Township, near the old colony townsite. Joseph L. Colton was the first settler 
on the townsite of Lisbon, where he built a mill in 1878, and laid out the town 
in September, 1880. 

Fort Ransom was established in 1866 for the purpose of keeping the hostile 
Sioux in check, and guarding the trains of emigrants going westward. It was 
named for Gen. T. E. G. Ransom of the U. S. Army, and the county was named 
for this fort. The old earthwork, in the form of a quadrangle about two hun- 
dred and fifty by three hundred feet in dimensions, and six feet high, portions 
of the powder magazine and cellars and fragments of buildings, the old lime 
kiln and slaughter houses, are yet to be seen. On the brow of the hill north of 
the fort are the remains of six graves walled up with stone and mortar, where 
soldiers were buried and the bodies afterward removed. 

The fort was abandoned in 1872 and moved to Fort Seward, near Jamestown. 
The buildings left by the Government were stolen by the early settlers. 

The old "Oregon Trail" crosses the county diagonally about six miles south 
of Lisbon. On the SE 34. section 2, township 133, range 56, is a large camping 
place with earthworks thrown up in a circle over forty rods across where the 
Oregon emigrants protected themselves against an attack from the Indians. 

The remains of several Indian gardens and villages are yet visible along the 
Sheyenne Valley. At the old crossing near J. E. Brunton's is the outline of a 
large village and near it are earthworks built by white men to guard the ford and 
as a camp for benighted travelers. 

Sibley's expedition crossed the Sheyenne and established Camp Hayes and 
celebrated the 4th of July, 1863. Ex-Governor Horace Austin of Minnesota, then 



544 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

captain of Company B, First Regiment, Mounted Rangers, addressed the troops, 
being tlie first 4th of July oration delivered in Ransom County. A tall liberty 
pole of white ash was erected. The expedition passed about a mile and a half 
north of Lisbon and established "Camp Wharton" on sections 19 and 20, town- 
ship 135, range 56, where it halted until Sunday morning, July 12th, waiting for 
a supply train to arrive from Alexandria, Minn., when it passed on and crossed 
the Sheyenne River at Stony Ford near Sorenson's Mills in Barnes County. 

Ransom County was created by act of the Territorial Legislature, January 4, 
1873, from Pembina, and by act of the Legislature, February 7, 1877, the County 
of Ransom was attached to the County of Richland for the purpose of recording 
deeds, mortgages and other instruments. 

On March 7, 1881, Governor Ordway appointed as commissioners Frank 
Probert, Gilbert Hanson and George H. Colton. Their first meeting was held 
April 4, 1881, and Frank Probert was chosen chairman. At the meeting next 
day the "county seat was located at Lisbon." The following officers were 
appointed: J. L. Colton, register of deeds and county clerk; George H. Man- 
ning, sheriff; A. H. Moore, deputy sheriff; John Kinan, treasurer; J. P. Knight, 
judge of probate; M. A. Smith, assessor; Peter H. Benson, Thomas Olson, Amos 
Hitchcock and Thomas Harris, Sr.. justices of the peace; John Ording, Solomon 
Robinson, Orlando Foster and Edward Ash, constables ; Eben W. Knight, super- 
intendent of schools; E. C. Pindall, county surveyor; W. W. Bradley, coroner. 
Joseph J. Rogers was employed as counsel for the board of commissioners. 

January i, 1883, the following officers qualified: D. F. Ellsworth, Randolph 
Holding and M. L. Engle, commissioners; A. H. Laughlin, register of deeds; 
A. C. Kvella, treasurer, and A. H. Moore, sheriff'. M. L. Engle was elected 
chairman of the board. 

Among the old settlers who came previous to 1884 were : W. H. Smith, 
J. S. Cole, S. Robinson, Judge E. J. Ryman, J. Peterman, F. P. Allen, H. A. 
Haugan, A. Sandager, Thomas A. Curtis, H. K. Adams, R. S. Adams, A. John- 
son, M. B. Rose, A. H. Laughlin, M. E. Moore, Stewart Heron, H. H. Grover, 
H. S. Grover, Thomas J. Harris, E. S. Lovelace, T. J. Walker, Thomas E. 
Harris, S. W. Bale, John E. Fleming, W. W. Moore, Robert Perigo, G. E. 
Knapp, D. H. Buttz, Fred K. Moore, I. J. Oliver, John H. Oerding, P. W. 
Skiffington, F. W. Baguhn, J. S. Sullivan, F. M. Probert, Joseph Goodman, 
P. P. Goodman, M. L. Engle, H. S. Oliver, T. M. Elliott, William Trumble, J. E. 
Wisner, Maj. C. W. Buttz and J. E. Brunton. 

TOWNER COUNTY 

Towner County, named for Col. O. M. Towner, a prominent figure in the 
early days of North Dakota, founder of the Elk Valley farm, and other important 
enterprises, was created March 8, 1883, from parts of Caviller and Rolette 
counties. 

The county was first settled in 1881 and was organized in 1883 by the appoint- 
ment, November 6 of that year, of P. T. Parker, H. C. Davis and J. W. Connella 
as county commissioners, but J. S. Conyer was substituted for the latter on the 
day of organization. 

In 1886 Cando was established and forty acres scripped and laid out as a 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 545 

townsite by J. A. Percival of Devils Lake, who also purchased the three adjoin- 
ing forties entered by H. C. Davis. 

June 2, 18S4, the county was divided into school districts and the following 
were appointed as judges of school election: District No. i, J. L. Miller, J. H. 
McCune and Frederick Lemke — election at A. S. Gibbens' ; district No. 2, Frank 
Blair, C. C. Edwards and J. W. Hardee — election at the county building. 

The county was divided into commissioner districts in October, and voting 
precincts and judges were ordered as follows: At the store of W. H. Lane, 
T. W. Conyers, A. S. Gibbens and T. F. Hesse, judges; at the county building, 
John Smith, C. C. Marks and Mike Rocke, judges; at Richard D. Cowan's, 
James Dunphy, George Edmonson and J. Pinkerton, judges. 

The county officers elected that fall were H. C. Davis, J. S. Conyers and 
R. D. Cowan, commissioners ; W. E. Pew, register of deeds ; W. H. Lane, super- 
intendent of schools; J. W. Hardee, judge of probate; Edward Gorman, sheriff; 
T. W. Conyers, coroner; James Dunphy and John Nelson, justices of the peace; 
John Rocke, treasurer; R. J. Cowan, assessor; R. D. Cowan, constable. A. M. 
Powell continued to act as clerk of the court. 

A prominent factor in the early settlement of Towner County in 1883 was 
the Missouri Colony. They came largely from Pike County, which has fur- 
nished many immigrants for all portions of the North and West, and is famous 
from once having been the home of Joseph Bowers and his red-headed rival, who 
married Joe's sweetheart when he was off in California trying to raise a stake. 

This colony consisted of about forty men, and they had seventy carloads of 
stock and immigrant movables. Among them was Capt. P. P. Parker, Frank L. 
Wilson, Col. John Ely, J. H. McCune, James H. McPike, A. H. Riggs, George 
W. Clifton, A. H. Steele, William Steele, Wilson Williams, Guy M. Germond, 
C. B. Riggs, T. W. Conyers, Ed Preist, James M. Hanson, Joseph Grotte, John 
Crow and Amos Glasscock. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 
HISTORY OF BANKING IN NORTH DAKOTA 

The Dakotas claim the distinction of the oldest State Bankers Association in 
the United States, the Dakota Bankers Association having been organized in 
1885, with D. W. Diggs as president; R. C. Anderson, first vice president; M. P. 
Beebee as treasurer, and Eugene Steere as secretary. 

The first convention was held at Aberdeen, in May, 1885. At that meeting 
eighteen members, coming from different parts of what was then the Territory 
of Dakota, were enrolled as the original membership of the Dakota Association. 

May 24th and 25th, 1887, the annual convention of the Dakota Bankers Asso- 
ciation was held at Watertown, and the membership at that time numbered 
eighty-two. The officers of the association in 1887 were: President, Charles E. 
Judd, cashier of the Dakota Loan & Trust Company of Canton ; R. C. Anderson, 
as vice president, cashier of the Bank of St. Lawrence, with twenty-four vice 
presidents coming from various parts of the territory. M. P. Beebee, president 
of the Bank of Ipswich, was still treasurer of the association and Eugene Steere, 
cashier of the Citizens Bank of Pierre, secretary. 

One of the interesting features at the convention of 1887 was a historical 
paper covering banking in Dakota, by Frank Drew, at that time cashier of the 
Bank of Highmore, from which the following sketch has been taken. 

"The first banking institution, in the then Territory of Dakota, was located 
in the City of Yankton, which at that time was a rival of her now more popular 
neighbor. Sioux City, which city in 1872 numbered a population of but 3,000. 
Mark M. Palmer, a young man of twenty-three years of age, at that time, was 
the first person to open a bank in Dakota. In the fall of 1869 this bank was 
opened on Second Street in Yankton, as a private bank, the partners being S. 
Drew, who later on was cashier of the James River Bank of Frankfort, Dak., 
and Frank Drew, later cashier of the Bank of Highmore. Mr. Palmer failed and 
retired from the banking business in January, 1878. At that time no railroad 
had entered the domain of the great commonwealth of the Territory of Dakota, 
and business transactions were necessarily slow to accommodate the old-time 
Concord coach, which daily drove up to the postofifice, and deposited the mail, 
and delivered to the bank such currency, specie, etc., as it received from the 
outside world." 

In 1873 the locomotive appeared in Dakota Territory and the Concord coach 
was relegated to the frontier. Yankton drew trade from an enormous territory 
and the accounts of this pioneer bank were the accounts of business men, indi- 
viduals, Indian agents, post-traders, and others, furnishing the bank with a 
l.Trge and widely distributed business. Borrowers were then accustomed to 

546 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 547 

giving personal securitj- only. The chattel mortgage, the popular form of security 
in the Northwest, being a creation of later days. A most profitable source of 
revenue for the bank was that of advancing officers' pay accounts. For the ready 
cash, a liberal discount was not objected to by officers of the Government then 
in the frontier service. 

The second bank organized in the frontier territory was the Clay County 
Bank (not incorporated), organized September 21, 1871, at Vermilion, with 
V. C. Prentice as president, and Henry Newton as cashier. After a successful 
career of seven years this bank went out of existence September 4, 1878, 
announcing to its depositors their ability to pay all claims on demand. Mr. Pren- 
tice later on resided at Pierre, S. Dak., and Mr. Newton at Vermilion. 

The third bank on the list was started at Elk Point, under the name of the 
Bank of Union County, in the spring of 1872, by W. Hoffman, who was also 
interested in the milling business at that point. He failed in business in 1875, 
and died in the Black Hills in 1877. 

The fourth bank was started in Yankton in the fall of 1872, by P. P. Winter- 
mute, the slayer of the brilliant Gen. Edwin S. McCook, then secretary of the 
territory. This unfortunate affair occurred on the night of September 11, 1873, 
in the hall of the St. Charles Hotel at Yankton, at a meeting called by the citizens 
to consider the proposition of the incoming of the Dakota Railroad. Mr. Winter- 
mute's career as a banker then ended. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to 
ten years, but afterward obtained a new trial and was acquitted at \'ermilion. 
Dak. His liberty was of short duration, however, as his death occurred in 
Florida in 1877, where he had gone to recuperate a shattered constitution. The 
bank he founded was purchased by Edmunds and Wynn, under the title of the 
Yankton Bank, which was succeeded by the Edmunds-Hudson Co., they being 
succeeded by Edmunds & Sons. Newton Edmunds, senior member of the firm, 
was honored by many public trusts, among others being governor of the Terri- 
tory of Dakota. All of the banks mentioned so far were private institutions. 

In the winter of 1872, the First National Bank of Yankton was organized 
with a capital of $50,000, the first of its kind in the territory and was officered 
by the Hon. Moses K. Armstrong, president, then a delegate to Congress, and 
Mark Palmer, cashier. Mr. Palmer still continuing his private banking business. 
In 1873 S. B. Coulson purchased the interest held by Mr. Palmer and the man- 
agement fell into the hands of J. C. McVey, president, and C. E. Sanborn, 
cashier, Mr. Annstrong having retired. 

The First National Bank of Yankton is an example of what good manage- 
ment will produce. It still stands among the leading financial institutions of the 
two Dakotas, with an uninterrupted history of prosperity covering a period of 
forty-four years. 

The sixth bank came into existence in Sioux Falls in the summer of 1873, 
Jno. D. Cameron being proprietor of the bank. He failed in 1875, and was suc- 
ceeded by J. D. Young & Co., who were in turn succeeded by the First National 
Bank of Sioux Falls, which failed in 1886. 

The seventh bank was started in 1875, at Bismarck, Dak., Hon. James W. 
Raymond, later territorial treasurer, and afterward president of the North- 
western National Bank of Minneapolis, being the prime mover in this work. 



548 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

The Bismarck National Bank with James W. Raymond as president and Wil- 
liam Bell cashier, was the outcome of this bank. 

It was just at this time that Dakota Territory entered upon an era of railroad 
building, bringing into existence many new towns, and among other things, 
numerous banking institutions. By this time modes of doing business had some- 
what changed. Loans were made on chattel mortgages, the forms of which have 
varied with each succeeding session of the Legislature. Dakota investments so 
long held in doubt were becoming prominent and sought after. The business of 
first mortgage farm loans had grown to a proportion far exceeding expectations, 
and was handled by institutions in and out of the territory. The earliest organizers 
of this branch of business was the firm of Foster & Hayward, who conducted 
a farm and loan business in Yankton from 1872 to 1876. A number of banks 
had sprung into existence in tliat part of the territory, which is now the State of 
North Dakota, all of which have gone out of existence with the exception of the 
First National Bank of Fargo, which was organized in February, 1878. 

The first published statement of this bank was printed March 15, 1878, show- 
ing a paid-up capital of $61,000, deposits of $12,000, and loans and discounts, 
$27,000. E. B. Eddy was president, and E. C. Eddy, who still resides in Fargo, 
N. Dak., was cashier. The First National Bank of Fargo claims the distinction 
of being the oldest and largest bank in the State of North Dakota. Its present 
capital is $300,000, surplus and undivided profits, $250,000, and deposits, $5,- 
500,000. Its active officers at the present time being E. J. Weiser, president; 
F. A. Irish, vice president, and G. H. Nesbit, cashier. 

In the years of 1880-81-82 banks in the Territory of Dakota flourished like 
mushrooms and the first thing to catch the eye on entering a new town was a 
bank building and then a saloon. During these years the railroads were extend- 
ing their lines in every direction, weaving into a giant cobweb the commercial 
interests of Dakota. Huron came into notice in 1880, and December 23d of that 
year the first bank was started in Huron by C. C. Hills, since deceased. 

E. Steere landed in Huron January 3, 188 1, with an embryo bank in his 
pocket, thinking he was the first man on deck, but after a night's sleep and a 
little investigation in the morning he discovered his mistake and upon calling at 
the bank already started he found an old-time friend. After a careful sizing up 
of the situation the conclusion was reached that Huron would not need two 
banks for some time to come. Mr. Steere went on to Pierre, and started the 
Citizens Bank, which for many years was the oldest bank in that portion of 
Dakota. Later on in the fall of the year 1881, Frank Stevens started the Beadle 
County Bank, the second incorporated institution of its kind in the territory. 

The Citizens Bank of Grand Forks was organized in 1878 with J. W. Smith 
as president and S. S. Titus as cashier. This bank developed into the First 
National Bank of Grand Forks with J. W. Smith as president and S. S. Titus 
as cashier. The First National Bank of Grand Forks is still a flourishing 
institution. It's ofificers are: S. S. Titus, chairman of the board of directors, 
A. I. Hunter, president, and J. R. Carley, cashier. 

In 1889 the Territory of Dakota was divided into the states of North and 
South Dakota, the principal cities of North Dakota at that time being Fargo, 
Grand Forks, Bismarck, Jamestown, Valley City, Grafton, Devils Lake and 
Minot, and other smaller towns there had flourishing banks, and the business 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 549 

of banking grew to enormous proportions. At that time the Dakota Bankers 
Association went out of existence and the North Dakota Bankers Association 
and the South Dakota Bankers Association were organized. 

The first officers of the North Dakota Association were Charles A. Morton, 
of Fargo, president; E. P. Wells, of Jamestown, first vice president; R. S. Adams, 
of Lisbon, treasurer; and George B. Clififord, of Grand Forks, secretary. The 
North Dakota Association flourished for several years, but was finally abandoned 
and an effort was made to reorganize the association in 1894, but after holding 
two meetings the organization was again abandoned, and not until 1903 was 
another efiort made to organize a state association when through the efforts of 
F. W. Cathro, cashier of the First National Bank of Bottineau, a meeting of the 
bankers of the state was held at Grand Forks on Thursday and Friday, August 
27th and 28th, for the purpose of reorganizing the North Dakota Association. 

Every banker in the state was cordially invited to participate in the organ- 
ization, the call being signed by twenty-one bankers located in as many diflferent 
cities in the state. A meeting was organized by the election of F. W. Cathro of 
Bottineau, as temporary chairman ; W. C. Alacfadden of Fargo, as temporary 
secretary ; and M. J. Liverman of Grand Forks, as temporary assistant secretary 
and stenographer. At the conclusion of the organization meeting officers for the 
ensuing year were elected as follows: S. S. Lyon of Fargo, president; M. F. 
Murphy of Grand Forks, vice president; J. H. Terrett of Michigan City, treas- 
urer ; and W. C. Macfadden of Fargo, secretary. 

In 1906 the North Dakota Bankers Association was incorporated under the 
laws of the State of North Dakota and in 1914 permanent offices were provided, 
and W. C. Macfadden elected as state secretary of the association, he devoting 
his entire time to the business of the association since that date. From the years 
1903 to 1916 the following gentlemen have served as presidents of the association : 
F. W. Cathro, Bottineau, N. Dak. ; S. S. Lyon, Fargo, N. Dak. ; M. F. Murphy, 
Grand Forks, N. Dark. ; L. B. Hanna, Fargo, N. Dak. ; J. L. Cashel, Grafton, 
N. Dak.; C. E. Batcheller, Fingal, N. Dak.; C. J. Lord, Cando, N. Dak; W. C. 
McDowell, Marion, N. Dak. ; Karl J. Farup, Park River, N. Dak. ; R. S. Adams, 
Lisbon, N. Dak. ; Lewis F. Crawford, Sentinel Butte, N. Dak. ; J. J. Nierling, 
Jamestown, N. Dak. ; W. D. McClintock, Rugby, N. Dak. ; J. E. Phelan, Bowman, 
N. Dak. The present officers being J. E. Phelan of Bowman, president; C. R. 
Green of Cavalier, vice president : W. D. McClintock of Rugby, chairman of the 
executive council; W. F. Hanks of Powers Lake, treasurer; and W. C. Mac- 
fadden of Fargo, secretary. 

At the annual convention held in Fargo, July 14 and 15, 1904, a total of 291 
banks in North Dakota was shown, 79 national banks with an aggregate capital 
of $2,725,000, and 212 state banks with an aggregate capital of $2,357,000, or a 
total banking capital of $5,082,000. In 1912 the financial institutions in the 
state were as follows : state banks, 596 ; trust companies, 3 ; national banks, 
146; total, 745. In June, 1916, the total number of banks and trust companies 
in the state had increased to 151 national banks, 4 trust companies, 658 state 
banks, making a total of 823 institutions. Nine million seven hundred thirteen 
thousand dollars total capital for the state banks and $5,625,000 as the aggregate 
capital of the national banks, and $500,000 capital for the trust companies, with 



550 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

total deposits for the state banks of approximately $80,000,000 and total deposits 
of the national banks approximately $35,000,000. 

Annual conventions of the state association are held, at which topics of gen- 
eral interest to the state are discussed and to the North Dakota Bankers Associa- 
tion can a very large amount of credit be rightfully given for the development 
of the commonwealth. 

BANKS OF DAKOTA TERRITORY AS SHOWN BY THE REPORT OF THE COMPTROLLER OF 
CURRENCY FOR THE YEAR 1889, TOGETHER WITH CAPITAL AND RESOURCES 

Aggregate 

Name Capital Resources 

Mrst National Bank, Aberdeen $ 50,000 $176,659.89 

Aberdeen National Bank, Aberdeen 75,ooo 208,504.65 

Northwestern National Bank, Aberdeen 100,000 273,825.43 

First National Bank, Bismarck 100,000 239,355.97 

Capital National Bank, Bismarck 50,000 156,626.98 

First National Bank, Brookings 50,000 159,633-57 

First National Bank, Canton 50,000 126,634.48 

First National Bank, Casselton 60,000 255,653.03 

First National Bank, Chamberlain 50,000 146,463.27 

First National Bank, Clark 60,000 144,949,70 

-First National Bank, Deadwood 100,000 1,052,152.78 

Deadwood National Bank, Deadwood 100,000 224,440.10 

Merchants National Bank, Deadwood 100,000 244,250.19 

First National Bank, Dell Rapids 75,ooo 178,368.77 

First National Bank, DeSmet 50,000 98,000.00 

First National Bank, Devils Lake 50,000 182,081.76 

Merchants National Bank, Devils Lake 50,000 116,604.92 

First National Bank, Doland 50,000 96,537.82 

-First National Bank, Fargo 150,000 (^850,415.81 

Citizens National Bank, Fargo 100,000 j 372,424.74 

Red River Valley National Bank, Fargo 100,000 (^427,252.28 

First National Bank, Grafton 50,000 210,134.29 

Grafton National Bank, Grafton 50,000 169,188.63 

Second National Bank, Grand Forks SS.ooo 215,064.32 

Citizens National Bank, Grand Forks 100,000 419,956.91 

Grand Forks National Bank, Grand Forks 60,000 266,907.80 

First National Bank, Hillsboro 50,000 246,1 10.54 

Hillsboro National Bank, Hillsboro 50,000 162,323.79 

First National Bank, Huron 75 .000 346,629.22 

Beadle County National Bank, Huron 50,000 162,862.27 

Huron National Bank, Huron 75,ooo 319,044.20 

National Bank of Dakota, Huron 50,000 138,904.11 

James River National Bank, Jamestown 50,000 155,81937 

First National Bank, Larimore 50,000 148,902.23 

First National Bank, Lisbon 50,000 157,861.09 

First National Bank, Madison 50,000 118,498.89 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 551 

Aggregate 

Name Capital Resources 

Citizens National Bank, Madison $ 50,000 $182,237.50 

First National Bank, Mandan 50,000 169,134.49 

First National Bank, Mayville 50,000 i55. 517-45 

First National Bank, Minot 50,000 80,258.72 

F"irst National Bank, Mitchell 50,000 234,128.52 

Mitchell National Bank, Mitchell 50,000 127,472.39 

First National Bank, Parker 50,000 1 17,277,93 

First National Bank, Park River 50,000 137,861.47 

First National Bank, Pembina 50,000 205,773.03 

First National Bank. Pierre 50,000 145,262.10 

Pierre National Bank, Pierre 25,000 *^3'i36-57 

First National Bank, Rapid City 50,000 334,010.78 

Black Hills National Bank, Rapid City 125,000 264,073.34 

First National Bank, Redfield 50,000 158,612.78 

" Dakota National Bank, Sioux Falls 50,000 315,646.34 

Minnehaha National Bank. Sioux Falls 200,000 71 1,781.47- 

- Sioux Falls National Bank, Sioux Falls 100,000 405,668.89 

First National Bank, Sturgis 50,000 107,912.82 

First National Bank, Valley City 50,000 180,455.82 

Farmers and Merchants National Bank, Valley City. 65,000 126,170.55 

National Bank, Wahpeton 30,000 34,629.12 

First National Bank, Watertown 50,000 153,512.21 

Citizens National Bank, Watertown 50,000 163,088.07 

Watertown National Bank, Watertown 50,000 129,862.14 

First National Bank, Yankton 50,000 192,993.54 

ARSTRACT OF C0MPAIt.\TIVE STATEMENT OF THE STATE BANKS AND TRUST COMPA- 
NIES IN NORTH DAKOT.\ FOR CALLS AT THE CLOSE OF BUSINESS ON JUNE 30, 
AND SEPTEMBER 12, I916. 

658 State Banks 671 State Banks 

4 Trust Companies 4 Trust Companies Increase (I) 

reporting on reporting on and 
Resources June 30, 1916 Sept. 12, 1916 Decrease (D) 

Loans and Discounts $65,818,820.44 $68,787,936.43 $2,969,115.99 I 

Overdrafts 242,895.08 279,833.39 36,938.311 

Warrants, Claims, etc 1,867,701.22 1,925.382.60 57,681.381 

l^>anking House Furniture 

and Fixtures 3-092,653-33 3,205,137.11 112,483.781 

Other Real Estate 2,045,566.83 2,116,683.66 71,116.831 

Due from Approved Re- 
serve Agents 14,036,880.90 19,243,214.41 5,206,333.51 I 

Due from Other Banks.. . 978,102.38 1,336,409.54 358,307.161 

Cash Items 516,363.22 485,665.87 30,697.35D 

Cash on Hand 2,336,432.90 2,792,048.81 455,615.91 I 



Totals $90,935,416.30 $100,172,311.82 $9,236,895,521 



552 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 



658 State Banks 
4 Trust Companies 
reporting on 
June 30, 1916 
Liabilities 

Capital Slock $ 9,713,000.00 

Surplus Fund 2,994,067.71 

Undivided Profits less cur- 
rent expenses 659,005.20 

Due to other banks 1,574,652.09 

Deposits subject to check. . 29,266,223.87 
Demand Certificates of De- 
posit 873,899.65 

Time Certificates of Deposit 41,879,834.42 

Saving Deposits 2,339,491.87 

Certified and Cashier's 

Checks 777,810.30 

Bills Payable 644,438.00 

Re-Discounts 207,982.53 

Other LiaWHties 5,010.66 

Totals $90,935,416.30 



671 State Banks 

4 Trust Companies 

reporting on 

Sept. 12, 1916 

$ 9.973.000.00 
3,052,082.22 

529,632.51 

2,092,861.33 

33.974.670.70 

874.363-58 

45,258,453.89 

2,459.925-67 

976,943.26 
760,562.12 

205,359-85 
14,456.69 



Increase (I) 
and 
Decrease (D) 

$ 260,000.00 I 
58,014.51 I 

i29,372.69D 

518,209.24 I 

4,708,446.83 I 

463-93 I 
3,378,619.47 I 

120,433.80 I 

199,132.96 I 

116,124.12 I 

2,622.68 D 

9,446.03 I 



$100,172,311.82 $9,236,895.52 I 



NATIONAL BANKS OF NORTH DAKOTA AS SHOWN BY THE REPORT OF THE COMP- 
TROLLER OF THE CURRENCY. REPORT OF SEPTEMBER 2, I915. CAPITAL, 
AGGREGATE RESOURCES AND DEPOSITS 



Location and name of 
bank. 



President. 



Cashier. 



Abercromble. First Ingral Johnson Franklin D. Tonne. . 

imhrose. First J. L. Mathews D. C. Hair 

Anamonse. .Anamoose J. J. Schmidt A. J. Hoffer 

Bench. First O. C. Attletweed L. E. Austin 

Belfleld. I'lrst R. C. Davis -7. O. Jlilslen 

BInford. First Leivls Berg Oscar Greenland .. 

Blsbee. First A. Eceland .T. G. Behan 

Blsmard!. First C. B. Little Friink B. Shepard 1 

Bismarck, rlty P. C. Remington .T. A. Graham 

Bottineau. Mrsl W. H. Mcintosh F. W. Cathro 

Bottineau. Bnltlncau H, A. Balle G. K. Vikan 

Bowbells. I'-Irst A. C. Wiper R. M. Wohlwend.. . 

Bowman, First .T, E. Phelan Dugald Stewart ... 

BrInsmade. First E. Bussharth H. J. Haugan 



BufTalo, Klrfit, 

Cando, First 

Cando, Cando. , , . 

Carpio, First 

Carrlngton, First 

Casselton. First 

Casselton, Cass County. 
Cavalier, First. 



.,E. E. More S. G. More. 

...r. J. Lord Harry Lord 

. . . C. J. Lofgren D. F. McLaughlin. 

...S. .T. Rasmiissen Oscar Henim 

...G. W. C. Ross G. S. Newberry 

...R. C. Kltlel W. F. Kltlel 

. Joseph Langes J. L. Gunkel 

,.H. A. Rygh A. D. Porter 

Churchs Ferry. First H. C. Hansen M. Encclhorn 

Cooperstown. First H. P. Hammer Seval Frlswold ... 

Courtcnay. First G. W. C. Ross R. V. Reeii 

Crary, First J. H. Smith O. C. Sagmoen 

Crosby. F^rst E. F. Volkraann Harry H. Martin.. 

Crosby, Citizens A. M. Eckmann Slgrurd Rue 

Crystal, First Tboa. Ryan Guy M. Jamleson.. 

Devils Lake. First H. E. Raird R. V. Riio 

Devils Lake, Ramsey Co. .C, M. Fisher Rlanding Fisher . 

Dickinson, First A. Hllllard T. A. Tollerson. . . 

Dickinson, nakota H. C. rhristensen I>. D. ]\Tars 

Dickinson, ivferchants W, L. Richards Wilson Eyer 

Draytnn, First J. R. Stong H. A. Thorn 

Bast Falrvlcw, First A, F. Noble L, P, Lanouette... 

Edgeloy, First ? W, T. Martin A, J, Kcslor 

Edmore, First D, 11. Beecher C. C. Honey 

Eceland, First D. F, McLaughlin Geo. F. Elsberry.. 

Ellendalc, First F B. Gannon G. B. Lano 

Ellendale, miendale F. J. Graham H. C. Peek 

Bllendale. Farmers P. McGregor .Mbert C. Strand.. 

F'alrmount. First Geo. W. Mace Wm. Dalilnuist ... 

Fargo, First E. J. Welser G, n Nfihit 

Fargo, Fargn ^t. Hector G. E. Nichols 

Fargo, Merchants ,N. A, I,ewl8 S. S. Lyon 

Feasenden, First H. Thorson H. Ingvaldson 



Total 




resources 




and 




liabilities. 


Capital, 


$205,625 


$25,000 


199,331 


25.000 


286,659 


23,000 


350,e!)4 


25,000 


27.S,019 


25,ono 


162.6!16 


25,000 


286.8S0 


25,030 


1.591.969 


100.000 


722.274 


50.000 


311.647 


50.000 


262.965 


25.000 


207.902 


25.000 


355.079 


.25.0M 


182.212 


25.000 


220,793 


25,000 


442,401 


25.000 


363.694 


25,000 


197.531 


25 !I00 


472,049 


25,000 


507.629 


50,000 


308.500 


2.1,000 


210,166 


25,000 


179.620 


25,000 


538,2.15 


50,600 


100,099 


25,000 


149,165 


25,noo 


110,197 


25,000 


205,374 


25,000 


195,514 


25.000 


636.208 


75,600 


48il,l.i4 


50,003 


1.430,762 


100 000 


443,288 


56,010 


710,4.33 


50,000 


360.760 


25 ono 


126,483 


25,000 


457.594 


50.000 


241.872 


25,000 


100.418 


25,000 


436,560 


25,010 


175.717 


25,000 


134,382 


25,000 


191,038 


25.060 


3 660. 2«4 


310.066 


390.437 


50,000 


1.255.843 


100.000 


330,16) 


•>5.000 





Undi- 








vided 


Demand 


Time 


Surplus. 


profits. 


deposits. 


deposits. 


$4,000 




$31,595 


$94,095 


5.000 




55,017 


79.437 


5.000 




54,077 


151,776 


11.000 


$1,410 


114.409 


155.451 


25,000 


6.137 


92.743 


104.139 


5.000 


468 


35,901 


78.827 


5.000 




65,932 


1,50.956 


100.000 


13.072 


865,249 


169.108 


10.600 


8.057 


233,955 


224.153 


10.000 


4.378 


47,147 


163.622 


13.000 




69,126 


151.845 


5.060 




93,174 


63.009 


25.000 


8,914 


111.464 


133,935 


5,000 




37,902 


36.938 


50,000 


1.777 


91,234 


27,684 


35,000 




114.974 


240.427 


35,000 




. 97.7.3S 


179,337 


5,000 




64.145 


77.386 


25.006 


34.157 


246.802 


116.090 


10.000 


7.363 


175,326 


134.198 


25.500 


5.650 


139,746 


103.103 


1.406 


2.046 


52.213 


88.815 


5.000 


1.776 


52.161 


70.743 


50.000 


5,216 


109.628 


203,728 




678 


23,605 


44,256 


10.000 




52,266 


31,959 


1.060 




29,487 


47,297 


6.250 




84,757 


64,323 


6.003 


707 


55.816 


60,990 


25,600 


10.S91 


351.858 


167.433 


10,006 


23.404 


254,555 


138,171 


50 060 


2.720 


356,576 


764,049 


40,000 


4.930 


155,694 


87,825 


53 000 


10,445 


261,933 


212.566 


25,000 


2.538 


126,2,50 


129,952 


5,100 


3.748 


42.240 


20,996 


16,600 


6.637 


137.644 


199,691 


10,003 




44.114 


151,508 


7,000 


1.626 


24,225 


25,067 


40,000 


8.978 


212.682 


115,471 


4.300 




45.359 


74,985 


3.000 


6.371 


68.719 


27,042 


5.000 




51.615 


61,923 


200.006 


29.965 


1.434.442 


705.013 


10,600 


7.755 


220.384 


26.644 


T5,000 


25.974 


580.839 


288.628 


5.000 


3.684 


91.703 


170,377 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 



553 



Location and name of 
bank. 



President 



Fineal. First U A. Balcheller C. E. 

Finley. Firat E. Taiaey E, H 

Formal!, First 3. I^. Mitchell li. L. 

Garrison. First .Adelbert Tymeson. Jr. . . D. P. 

Goodrich. First R. W, Akin Frank 



BatcheUer $ 200.776 t 



Graltnii, First , 

Grafton. Grafton 

Grand Forlis. First... 

Hampden, First 

Hankinson, First 

Hankinson, citizens., 
nannaford. First... 



H, 

M. 



-F. H. Siiraffue M 

. ..D. C. Moitre D. 

...S. S. Titus J. 

...C. D. Lord E. 

...E. L. Kinney H. 

...E. Hunger H, 

. . . O. E. Tlioreson R. 

Harvey. First Aug. Peterson J. 

Hatton, I'trst M. F. Hegge Abraham Hanson 

Hatton, Farmers and 
Jlerchants M. L. Ellten G, 

Hebron. First H. R. Lyon J, 



Gilbenson. . 
Hirnebaugh. 
Robinson . . . 
.Seliroeiler . 
SlJraeue. . . . 
Ujiliam. . . . 

R. Carley 

R. Snarl bout . 
A. Merritield. 
Kautheraer .... 

L. .Tones 

,1. Reinier. 



H. Bolken . . 

H. Walls... 
. A. G. Newman. 
.E. R. Sarles... 
. Oie Arnegard . . , 

.F. W. Ehred 

Hope. Hope Ole Arnegard Geo. A. Warner. 



Hettinger. First C E. Balcheller, 

Hiilsboro. First E. Y. Sarles. . 

Hlllsboro. Hillsboro .T. H. Hanson. 

Hotie. I'lrst J. D. Brown, 



McLaehlin. 
Hodge. . . . 



Wolfer 

Do Nauit. 



Hunter. First J. H. Gale Peter 

Jamestown. Citizens J, J, Xierling C, R, 

Jamestown, Farmers and 

Mercliants Michael Murphy R. R. 

Jamestown. James River. . H. T. Graves A. B. 

Kenraare, First Charles J. Weiser David Clark. Jr, 

Kenmare, Kenmare J, N. Fo.'c H. P. Thronson 

Kramer, First H. Tborson H. O. Lyngstad 

Lakota. National G. W. C. Ross R. D. Swengel. 

La Moure. First David Lloyd Paul Adams .. 

La Moure. Farmers H. Neverman T. ft. Hunt 

Langdon, Plrsl C. B. McMillan J. H. B.tin 

Langdon, Cavalier County, W. F. Winter John Sheehan . 

Lansford. I^rst John S. Tucker A, G. -Adams,, 

Larimore. National F. E. Kenaston O, A, Hazen,,, 



.0. I. Hegge N. 

. E. A. Movius M. 

.M. Lyncli J. 

. Frank Chesrown F. 

.R. S. Adams W. 



.A. P. Hanson 

.H, R. Lynn 

. F. S. Graham. 



H. Story. . . 
O. Movlua . . . . 
W. Sliteler.. 

J. Pietz 

S. .Adams. . 

J. Sundet.. 

J. B. Racek... 

L. S. Royer 

Lewis Baertsch 
P. J. Hackl. 



Leeds, First 
Lidgerwood, Kirst,,, 
Lidgenvood. Farmers 

Linton, I'lrst 

Lisbon, First 

Litchville, First 

Mandan, First 

Mandan, Merchants , 

Marion, First Wesley C. McDowell 

Mannarth. First J E Phelan 

Mayville. I'lrst K " ^ " 

McClusky, First J. A. Beck 

McHenry, First H, S. Halvorson 

McVille, First C H. Simpson,, 

Medina, I'Mrst Michael Murphy. 

Milnor. First E B. Johnson.. 

Milnor. Milnor F. w. Vail 

Milton. First John Wild 

Minnewaukan. First O. I. Hegge.... 

Minot. Second R. E. Barron... 

Minnt. I'nion E. S Person.... 

Mohall, First H. H. Steele p 

Mott, First R. B. Trousdale B 

Munich. First David H. Beecher o 

New England, First Aug. Peterson H 

New Roekford. First Wm. Roberts H 

New Salem, First Chas. F. Kellogg j' 

Northwood. First A. P.. Landt W 

Northwnod, Citizens K. G. Springen A 

Oakes. First T. P. Marshall j ' e Bunday 

Oakes. Oakes Chas. S, Brown Hans' Lee 

Omemee. First D. McKinnon A R Batie 

Osnabrock. First John Trotter t' l' Tillisch 

Page. First L. B. Hanna M 



Jr. 



G. Springen Geo. O. Stomner. 

A. Eapeseth 

G. p. cross, 
A. O. Miien. 

Wra. F. Stege 

A. W. Eastman.. 

J. Edmon.... 

G. Halverson.. 

F. Pierson 

E. Byorum . . . 

. S. Flatiand.. 

A. Benson .... 

H. Trousdale. . 

A. Drews 

E. .Schroeder. 

F. Rivedan... 
Henry Kling. . 

E, Johnson... 
S. Ellingson.. 



,H. 
. H. 
. C. 

n. 



Park River. First Karl J. Fanip. .!!!!. Ik' d' Bennett 

Plaza. First Robt. W, Akin L,' y/ Linder 

PonUnd First G. A.White p'. m. Paulson.'.'.'..'.'. 

Reeder First. Aug. Peterson a. E. Johnston 

Reynolds, First S. N.Thompson wm F Huck 

Rock Lake. First W. J. Lichty H B Gray 

Rolette. First A. Eyeland c' n' Mv'hrp 

Rolla. First W. N. Steele Robt ' Fraser 

Ryder. First Aug. Peterson C H Christiansen 

St. Thomas. First F,. T. Thompson h l' Barnes 

Sanhnrn. Mrst K .4. Engebretson i^^j- jiaim :::.':;.'; 

Scranton. First W.A.Shaw -n t yist 

Sentinel Butte. First E. .L Curtin ^ q Stu'lir 

Sharon, First .Alexander Curry rv' xr' Olson 

Sheldon. First Gus O. Kratt . .' r y Kratt 

Sheyenne. First D. N. Tallman S" A" Severtson 

Stanley. First T. L. BeLseker r w Ta^vW 

st'»Ji'L""'A'if • "^"^ ?■ ^■J"'i"!;^'^^ ciias. • A. Potter'. '.:::: 

Steele. First Jno. F. Robinson y yt Tones 

T!,nll°'''r,T,i?' ?"■ ?• ^J'll"" B I- iloesch'en .'.'.■.'. '. '. 

ToUey. I'irst J. L. Afathews tv f, Hvnes 

Tower Citv. First A. M. Voorhees q F 'Slwman 

Towner. I.-irst .L R. Carley .f i' kuW 

Turtle lake. First Wm. Lierboe k.T. Licrbo'e 



Total 
resources 

and 
liabilities. Capital. 



25.000 

25,110') 
25,000 
25,000 
25.000 
53,000 
50,000 
200,009 
25,000 
30,000 
30,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25.000 



Undi- 
vided 
Surplus, profits. 



Demand Time 
deposits, deposits. 



250, USS 
170,798 
158,002 
185,152 
442,718 
517,485 
1,661,209 
128.598 
216,106 
275,093 
172,330 
427,763 
305,501 

21f..n64 
238,449 
208,48:) 
550„378 
551,465 
353,792 
294,492 
184,215 
342,501 

363,917 
851,206 
284,483 
299,272 
170,134 
150.499 
347,619 
276,243 
377,196 
324,539 
178,911 
132,437 
168,008 
54i;.521 
419,491 
328,865 
681,786 
225,099 

1,277,445 
241,663 
256,297 
193,155 
324,429 
141,178 
97,656 
164,969 
218,531 
147,348 
251,271 
137,740 
253,250 

1,239,849 
560,745 
164, .595 
275,616 
156,113 
219,806 
261,259 
233.339 
368,363 
199,210 
409,223 
244,736 
153,500 
262,557 
229,086 
355,156 
224,216 
250,079 
175,364 
86,673 
143,416 
166,349 
220,633 
186,399 
150.018 
222 272 
17i',922 
170,997 
206,343 
155,952 
213,889 
146,463 
173,090 
232.420 
139.880 
166.409 
338.657 
181,552 



.._,, _ j~,.. „, , ----- -- — — • ±\. i , i.ici injn 137,355 

Valley City. First. Herman Winterer .lohn Tracy 977.330 

Valley City .American.. ...Tames Grady H. C. Aamoth 497 ' 

Wahpeton. Citizens .E. R. Gamble j p Reeder 

Wahpelnn. National Joseph Patterson w y Eckea 

Walhalla. First C. W. .Andrews I/'p'Teppge 

Washburn. First Geo. I,, Robinson Aug E .Tohnson 

Williston, First O. I. Hegge W. S. Davidson. 

Willow City. First F. M. Rich C W Wilkins... 

Willow City. Merchants. . J. S. Odland Geo. B. Werdel.. 

Wimbledon. First F. C. Txivell H. M SI mud... 

Wimbledon. Merchants ...J. E. Fox C. C. Beers 

Wyndmere. First H. H. Bug ..^^^....0. B. Paulson 



497.948 
505.682 
411.000 
135. ISS 
370.565 
937.102 
214,529 
197.000 
225.391 
114.163 
125,935 



25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
50,000 
50,000 
50,000 

oo.noo 

30,000 
50.000 

50,000 

100,000 

25,000 
25.000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
50,000 
50,000 
25,000 
25,000 
23,000 
25,000 
50,000 
50.000 
25.000 
50.D00 
25.000 
60,000 
50,000 
25,000 
25,000 
50,000 
23,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
23,000 
30,000 
25,000 
25,000 

100,000 
60,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25.000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,m)0 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25.000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25.000 
50,000 
25,000 
25.000 

100.000 
50,000 
55,000 
50,000 
25.000 
25.000 
75.000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 
25,000 



% 5,000 




$ 36,761 


t 78,015 


2.', Htld 


i 4.497 


77.698 


91,893 


4,000 


715 


49,314 


75,769 


5,000 


454 


74,727 


36,321 


10,000 


2.288 


56,886 


70,978 


10,000 


211 


125,302 


171,655 


10,000 


6.135 


145,852 


255,498 


50,000 


14.938 


837,935 


99,151 


5.000 




17.173 


71.425 


6.1100 




60,154 


89,952 


10.000 




61,693 


118,400 


10,000 




32,973 


60,781 


25,000 


11.423 


108,394 


212,147 


15,000 


2,163 


114,822 


128,516 


10,000 


2.408 


45,296 


98.994 


8,000 


1.415 


121,590 


82,443 


8,000 


1.223 


75.572 


73,685 


10,000 


7,973 


149,112 


280,016 


13,000 


7,488 


125,320 


308.656 


10,000 




70,743 


158,218 


10,000 




50,046 


78,476 


6,000 


2,508 


34,693 


91,014 


12.500 


7,782 


166,168 


33,509 


2,500 




192,751 


103,091 


80,000 


7,883 


365,341 


227,354 


15,000 




97,552 


139,797 


25.000 




124.597 


92.329 


5,000 


1.914 


36,737 


90,983 


5,000 


723 


51,527 


34.162 


15,000 


1,580 


117.810 


159,893 


10,000 




24,262 


80,879 


20,000 


3,521 


57.554 


203,335 


5,000 


838 


79,424 


179,278 


5.000 


1.095 


46,869 


94,447 


5,000 




60,831 


40,106 


4,500 


1,393 


43,436 


68,679 


20,000 


156 


160,485 


249.764 


9,000 




108,665 


194,414 


10,000 




105,418 


182,197 


25,000 


1.456 


260,059 


275,271 


5,000 




63,600 


96,499 


85,000 




414,267 


548,470 






63,570 


78.289 


10,000 


2,775 


70,644 


135,778 


19,000 


4,128 


46,998 


01,651 


10,000 




73,912 


164,953 


2,150 


1.542 


37,735 


67,751 




272 


17,000 


10,423 




115 


69,434 


46,726 


4,000 




71,057 


100,999 


5,000 


299 


34,745 


71,440 


6,000 


759 


74,823 


113,891 


5,000 




20.503 


78,887 


5,000 


2.695 


63.694 


103.034 


60,000 


51,641 


455.778 


407,705 


30,000 


1,546 


193.656 


113,457 


5,000 


384 


77.115 


27,506 


12,500 


1,048 


92.711 


138,097 


5,000 


1,180 


12.406 


106,027 


5,000 


9,572 


56.410 


85,824 


6,000 




73.432 


131,442 


4,650 




41.217 


143,172 


10,000 


962 


106.517 


190,392 


5,000 




84.286 


54,924 


15.000 


1,136 


147.532 


135,881 


5.000 




86.032 


83,826 


10,000 


3,543 


28.271 


79,696 


5,000 


2,979 


45.240 


160,038 


7,500 


4,031 


108,239 


59,996 


30,000 


2,670 


70.482 


213,325 


10,000 


8,879 


80.797 


80,240 


10,000 




80,501 


128,319 


5,000 


83 


34,031 


56,482 


2,750 




13,316 


30,082 


6,000 




34,597 


48,419 


5,000 


76 


52,675 


59,500 


25,000 


4,213 


41,944 


100,076 


5,000 


10,844 


62,764 


50,202 


5,000 


1,326 


28,114 


65,578 


10,000 


7,544 


49,3.30 


83,218 


7,500 


1,680 


80,783 


41,819 


2,500 


1,290 


41,042 


79,805 


6,000 


1,806 


33,746 


105,676 


5,000 


3,589 


41,989 


42,874 


8.030 




37,986 


117,903 


3,000 




46,557 


65,956 


5,003 


9,701 


49,720 


52,079 


16.000 


2,559 


116,891 


47,195 






48,416 


45,733 


5,000 


465 


42,345 


77.349 


15,000 


4.572 


87,852 


92,733 


3,200 




54,814 


73,195 


3,000 




22,327 


57,007 


100,000 


2,022 


334,978 


406,445 


50,000 


2,635 


128.188 


193,422 


20,000 


9,449 


150.423 


163,188 


10,000 




105,778 


128,914 


2,500 


63 


26,772 


28,542 


15,000 


193 


127,352 


167,462 


25,000 


720 


253,662 


344,619 


10,000 




43,188 


98,841 


5,000 


2,448 


53,980 


99,906 


9,000 


93 


67.391 


88,907 


5,000 




24,760 


30,839 


5,000 




42,006 


3S,929 



CHAPTER XXXV 
HISTORY .OF METHODISM IN NORTH DAKOTA 

BV WILLIAM H. WHITE 

The history of the first Methodist Episcopal Church of Fargo is, largely, the 
history of early Methodism, in that part of the great Northwest north of the 
forty-sixth parallel of latitude and west of the Red River of the North. Long 
before the Indian title to the lands in the Red River Valley was extinguished, the 
pioneer Methodist preacher took up his work of laying the foundation of our 
great church in this country. 

In the omniscient mind of the ]\Iaster nothing is left to chance. 

As we witness the unfolding of His plans, we realize how for generations 
unborn His loving thought fulness provides. 

In the early history of Methodism in the little town of Adiz, Ohio, over seventy 
years ago, our sainted Bishop Simpson grew up with, and by his pure life was the 
means of the conversion of, a young man by the name of Gurley. While subse- 
quently associated with him in Allegheny College, he was instrumental, through 
divine direction, in young Gurley's entrance into the ministry, who, later, became 
the father of Methodism in this portion of the Northwest. 

Rev. James Gurley, better known by the affectionate title of Father Gurley, 
took up his residence at Brainerd, Minn., as a missionary of the Methodist 
Church, in the fall of 1871, his mission extending from Duluth, on Lake Superior, 
to the entire then inhabited portions of Northern Alinnesota, and what is now 
known as North Dakota. 

The beginnings of Methodism in Northern Dakota, under the direction of 
Father Gurley (like that movement under the direction of Wesley), had its origin 
in the prayer and exhortation meetings held in the shanties of the pioneers. 
Through the years of 1871 and 1872 no church organization was effected in all 
of Northern Minnesota and Dakota, except at Duluth and Brainerd. Fargo being 
but one of the many appointments upon a circuit of 150 miles, could claim only a 
portion of Father Gurley's time, and great were the sacrifices he made to reach it. 
He, however, laid the foundations of the church in this state, strong and deep, 
and upon this foundation, since 1872, Methodism has been building. 

No official local organization was effected in Northern Dakota during the year 
1873, but Methodism assumed more permanency and a nucleus was definitely 
formed at Fargo, of which the legal existence of the Fargo church was the out- 
growth in 1874. 

During 1873 Northern Dakota was joined to the Northwest Iowa conference 
and was known as the Northern Pacific Mission. The Rev. John Webb was 

554 



4 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 555 

regularly appointed b)^ that conference as general missionary west of the Red 
River, Rev. Gurley retaining the work in Northern IMinnesota. Mr. Webb's 
residence was at Fargo and his circuit comprised the district in which now are 
situated the towns of Jamestown, Caledonia, Grand Forks and Abercrombie, but 
no churches were officially organized at any of these points at this date. 

Church services during 1873 ^^'^re regularly held at Fargo in what was known 
as Pinkham's Hall, located on the corner of Front and Fifth streets. Rev. Mr. 
Webb officiated when in Fargo, his place being supplied during his absence by 
Father Gurley or by services conducted, by some of the laity. 

While no official membership existed, the church affairs were generally looked 
after by Mr. and Mrs. Alonzo Plummer, Miss Emma Plummer and William H. 
White. A Sunday school of about twenty scholars was formed with Wm. H, 
White as superintendent and with Mrs. Plummer and Miss Plummer as teachers. 
These informal organizations existed in Fargo throughout this year. Rev. Mr. 
Webb fostering them and giving them the larger portion of his time in connection 
with his duties at other f>oints on his circuit. 

A church building was talked of and some funds raised, but nothing further 
done except to select and solicit from the railroad company a donation of two of 
the lots upon which our present church stands. 

Early in the year 1874 energetic steps were taken toward collecting money and 
laying plans for the erection of the first Methodist Church in North Dakota. 

Through the kindness of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company in giving 
free rates for freight on building material, and the generosity of merchants and 
business men generally, irrespective of denomination, a subscription sufficient for 
the commencement of a small church was raised and active operations toward its 
erection were begtm early in the spring. 

The church building (the dimensions of which were about 30 by 50 feet) 
was completed and ready for occupancy by the ist of July. 

On the 20th of July the legal existence of the First Methodist Church and 
Sunday school of Fargo may be said to have begun, although for nearly a year 
prior to this date an organized Sunday school and services under the auspices of 
the Alethodist Church had been held with such regtdarity as the opportunities 
and circumstances of the time would permit. 

The meeting was held in the church building, the Rev. H. J. Christ of Brainerd, 
Minn., presiding. Those present were Rev. John Webb, missionary to the 
Northern Pacific mission, James Douglas of Moorhead, Minn., Alonzo Plummer, 
Mrs. Alonzo Plummer, Miss Emma Plummer and Wm. H. White. A board of 
trustees was elected consisting of N. K. Hubbard, Geo. I. Foster, Alonzo Plum- 
mer, secretary, and Wm. H. White, president. 

There was no board of stewards formed at this time, as the membership 
consisted of but one person (Wm. H. White), who was continued as Sunday 
school superintendent, the school at that time consisting of about twenty mem- 
bers. After determining the cost of the new building to be $1,200, upon which 
had been paid about $800, a canvass of subscriptions showing a deficit of $200, 
and after devising plans for the support of Rev. Mr. Webb as missionary, the 
meeting adjourned. 

While the church was started practically without a membership, according 
to the church records, its membership comprised the entire town as far as 



556 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

sympathy, interest and aid were concerned, and the interest manifested by the 
congregation insured success from the beginning; and for several years after 
it was the church home for all denominations until, with the incoming of new 
people, these organizations were of themselves sufficiently strong to build their 
own houses of worship. The first loss of this nature occurred December 30, 1877, 
when the Presbyterians, who had worshipped with us, went off to form a society 
of their own denomination. These were followed September 22, 1878, by the 
Baptists, who had erected for themselves a church building. Later, November 2, 
1881, the Congregationalists likewise erected their own church edifice. These 
repeated drains upon our working membership were felt, but those of our own, 
with renewed energy and added zeal, taking up the work, no serious drawbacks 
attended these repeated withdrawals. In the fall of the year mentioned (1874) 
our church was dedicated. At this time a subscription was taken sufficiently 
ample to free it from debt. During this year Missionary Webb had also formed 
a nucleus for a church at Grand Forks fostered by the Fargo church by dona- 
tions of books, etc. In the fall of 1874 the Northwestern Iowa Conference 
returned the Rev. John Webb to the Northern Pacific Mission, with headquarters 
at Fargo, and, as an assistant, the Rev. Mr. Curl was appointed, with headquarters 
at Grand Forks. 

During the spring and summer of 1875 the Fargo charge was one of a circuit 
as in former years, the Rev. Mr. Webb giving most of his time to this part of 
the work, but also laying such foundations throughout the territory as were 
afterward developed, largely through the instrumentality of the Fargo church. 

In the fall of 1875 the Northwestern Iowa Conference established a district 
of Northern Dakota, calling it the Northern Pacific District. Rev. Mr. Webb was 
appointed presiding elder and Rev. J. T. Walker pastor at Fargo. This was 
the first appointment made directly to Fargo. On account of ill health Mr. 
Walker was unable to take the appointment and the Rev. J. B. Starkey was 
transferred from Onawa, Iowa, and appointed to Fargo in Mr. Walker's place. 
Brother Starkey arrived in Fargo on November 13th. 

On Sunday, November 14th, he preached his first sermon in Fargo, being the 
first sermon preached by a regularly appointed pastor at Fargo. 

The congregation numbered twenty-three people. The membership at this 
date, according to records now in Rev. Starkey's possession, consisted of five 
persons, namely: Miss Alvira Pinkham (now Mrs. Geo. Cooper), Mrs. E. A. 
Grant, Mrs. Geo. I. Foster, Mrs. E. A. Atkinson and Wm. H. White. The 
Sunday school at this date was reorganized under the Sunday School Union 
with the same officers and teachers. The first prayer meeting held by the new 
pastor was in the church on the evening of November i8th, four persons being 
present. Revival meetings were planned by Reverend Starkey shortly after his 
arrival and continued for two weeks. While no additions were made to the 
church, the influence for good on the town was marked, and the church as an 
institution was strengthened thereby. 

During the spring and summer of 1876 Rev. Mr. Starkey, in connection with 
his pastoral work, was very energetic in his efforts to advance the cause of 
temperance in the town, lecturing and organizing a temperance band which 
had a marked influence on its temperance principles. 

In the fall of 1876 North Dakota was placed in the Sioux City district, with 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 557 

Rev. T. M. Williams presiding elder. He visited Fargo but once during the 
conference year, having to travel by the way of St. Paul, Northern Pacific Junc- 
tion and Brainerd, a distance of 600 miles, to reach the district. Rev. Mr. 
Starkey acted in the double capacity of pastor at Fargo and presiding elder, 
rendering faithful service in enlarging the plans started by the Rev. Mr. Webb 
throughout North Dakota, and in addition to his faithful service at Fargo he 
completed a church at Grand Forks. 

Mr. Starkey's pastorate in Fargo terminated in the fall of 1878. 

As a pastor he was a man of influence in Fargo, not only in the church, but 
throughout the town and at adjacent points. His untiring efforts and fervent 
zeal placed the church upon a permanent foundation with opportunities for 
rapid advancement under subsequent leadership. 

On September 28, 1878, at a meeting held at Cherokee, Iowa, by a joint com- 
mission from the Northwest Iowa Conference and the Minnesota Conference, it 
was decided to attach to the Minnesota Conference all the territory north of the 
forty-sixth parallel of latitude, and the presiding bishops of each conference, con- 
curring in this decision, completed the transfer, thus making North Dakota and 
Fargo charge at this date in the Minnesota Conference, and designated as the 
Red River district. Later, in the fall of 1878, the Minnesota Conference appointed 
the Rev. Mr. Starkey presiding elder of this district, and Rev. Mr. Barnett, a 
transfer from Kentucky, as pastor at Fargo. Rev. Mr. Barnett failing to meet 
the appointment. Presiding Elder Starkey appointed the Rev. H. B. Crandall, from 
Alexandria, to Fargo. Mr. Crandall served this charge as pastor during the 
conference year of 1878 and 1879, enlarging the membership of the church, 
organizing its societies and rendering efficient service during his pastorate. 

On October 6, 1879, ^^v. C. F. Bradley was transferred from Duluth to 
serve the Fargo charge. Rev. Mr. Starkey being reappointed presiding elder. 
Mr. Bradley's pastorate was of only a year's duration, but it was a year crowded 
with improved opportunities and rapid strides in the development and extension 
of the interests of the church, and through the Fargo church to the entire district. 
During this year Mrs. S. M. Stiles, of Hartford, Conn., solicited in Eastern 
cities and shipped to the Fargo church nearly a ton of Sunday school books and 
church literature, which in turn, through the wise management of Rev. Mr. 
Bradley and officers of the Sunday school, were reshipped to the various new 
towns springing up about Fargo, and were an incentive to the beginning of new 
Sunday schools, which have developed into what are now our neighboring Meth- 
odist churches. 

The gift also formed the basis of our present Sunday school library. Mr. 
Bradley's pastorate was also characterized by an unprecedented religious growth 
in the church. The membership numbered about one hundred. 

A literary society of unusual interest was formed. The class meeting was 
well attended and every department of the church showed the favorable results 
of sympathetic interest and effort between pastor and people. His ripe scholar- 
ship, judgment and dignified christian bearing drew many outside of any church 
relationship and, by enlarging our congregations, benefited those who came and 
contributed to the material interests of the church From these conditions our 
church soon proved inadequate to our needs, necessitating action with reference 
to a new church building. Late in the summer of 1880 Mr. Bradley received a 



558 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

call to a professorship in Hamline University, which he accepted, after a vacation, 
at the end of the conference year; the church being supplied by Rev. C. N. 
Stovvers, of the Wisconsin Conference. On October ii, 1880, Rev. C. N. Stowers 
was regularly appointed to the Fargo charge and served as its pastor until the 
summer of 1881, at which time he was obliged to resign on account of ill health 
occasioned by overwork, and the Rev. S. B. Warner was transferred from the 
Upper Iowa Conference to finish the year. The fall of 1880 and the winter of 
1 88 1 under the pastorate of Brother Stowers were busy seasons for Methodism 
in Fargo. The little church which had acconunodated the society for si.x years 
became entirely inadequate to the needs of the growing congregation, and it 
was sold to the Catholics. It was not without great regret that the members 
saw the building which had so long been their church home, mounted on rollers 
and slowly moved from the location upon which it had been of so much influence. 
In its place was erected a building better adapted to the convenience and comfort 
of the growing society, at a cost of $5,000. Subscriptions had been taken but 
the funds realized were insufficient to free it from debt, and most heroically did 
the membership at repeated times respond to the call for financial aid and, for 
the reason that we prize those things which cost the greatest struggle to acquire, 
the new church soon began to be recognized and appreciated as the church home 
in the same sense as was the little old church which had been so deeply seated 
in the affections of the people. By Christmas, 1880, the new church was finished, 
and pastor and people devoutly returned thanks for the divine aid which had 
enabled them to construct, for His worship, a building so commodious. At this 
time was placed in the tower the first bell that proclaimed protestant Christianity 
to the people of North Dakota, and, being the first member of any protestant 
church in North Dakota, Wm. H. White was called upon to first send its tones 
vibrating through the air. 

About this time the membership numbered 125 and the Sunday school 150. 

On September 29, 1881, the Minnesota Conference convened and was enter- 
tained at Fargo, its sessions being held in the Fargo church. At this time the Rev. 
J. B. Starkey, who since November 30, 1875, had served the people so faithfully, 
closed his relations with the district to take work in another field. Largely 
through his self-sacrificing and energetic labors the Fargo membership had grown 
from 5 to 125, and the district from two churches to over two dozen churches, 
nearly all of which owe their start and success to him. 

At this conference (September 29, 1881) the Rev. S. B. Warner was appointed 
pastor and Rev. G. R. Hair presiding elder of the Fargo district. 

On December 31, 1881, Wm. H. White resigned the superintendency of the 
Sunday school, after a service of eight years dating from its beginning. He was 
succeeded by T. S. Ouincy, who served until September i, 1882, and who was 
in turn followed bv Smith Stimmel, who acted in the capacity of superintendent 
until May i, 1883. 

The church under the pastorate of Rev. ]\lr. Warner, during the conference 
year of 1881 and 1882. rapidly increased in numbers. Being at a period of great 
influx of people to Fargo, the interests of the church were stimulated by the 
acquisition of new members, and under the careful and painstaking supervision 
of Rev. Mr. Warner the spiritual, social and financial interests of the church 
received a great impetus. The pastorate of Rev. Mr. Warner closed October 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 559 

4, 1882. and that of Rev. M. S. Kaufman began, continuing through a period of 
three years from October 4, 1882, to September 24, 1885. This period of church 
histor\' is one of great importance. Fargo was at the height of business pros- 
perity and the center of activity for the surrounding country. Many operating 
large farms in the country, and carrsing on other lines of industry, resided at 
Fargo and made this their church home. During Rev. Mr. Kaufman's ministry 
the Foreign Missionary' and Ladies' Aid societies developed unusual activity and 
interest. Special revival services were held each year, those of one winter being 
protracted through eleven consecutive weeks, resulting in many conversions and 
valuable accessions to the church. Much of the prosperity and growth during 
this period was due to the earnest and faithful work of Brother Kaufman, with 
those who so nobly seconded his efforts. During this period the general con- 
ference, which met in Philadelphia May, 1884, divided the Minnesota conference 
and established the North Dakota Mission conference, also passing an enabling 
act for the Mission conference to become an annual conference when deemed 
advisable. The first session of the Mission conference was held at the Fargo 
church October 2, 18S4. Bishop Fowler presided. At the second session of the 
North Dakota ^fission conference, held at Wahpeton, September 24, 1885, the 
Rev. S. W. Ingham, of the Upper Iowa conference, was appointed to Fargo, 
serving three years. The Rev. H. B. Bilbie, of the ^linnesota conference, was 
appointed presiding elder of the district at the same time, serving the same period. 

At the third session of the North Dakota Mission conference held at Grand 
Forks October 14, 1886, Bishop Harris presiding, a motion was made by the 
Rev. D. C. Plannette that an organization of an independent conference be 
effected, to be called the North Dakota Conference. This motion was carried 
by a vote of 29 to 2, thus accomplishing the final work of Methodist conference 
building in North Dakota. 

Fargo was again the seat of the conference which convened October 19, 1887, 
being the first session of the North Dakota annual conference. This gives the 
Fargo charge the honor of not only holding the first Methodist service in North 
Dakota, but the first Mission conference and the first annual conference as well. 

During the pastorate of Rev. Mr. Ingham the stiperintendency of the Sunday 
school was held by Wm. Mitchell, who succeeded Smith Stimmel on May i, 1883, 
holding the office until May i, 1888, when he was succeeded in oiifice by W. P. 
McKinstn,'. 

On October 11, 1888, Rev. G. S. White of the Central New York conference 
was appointed to Fargo by Bishop Hurst, D. C. Plannette being returned as 
presiding elder. Rev. G. S. White's pastorate was characterized by renewed 
activity on the part of the church along various lines of work. 

He formed among the younger membership the Young People's Christian 
League, having in view the maintenance of a Sunday evening devotional meeting 
conducted by young people. This later became the Epworth League of our church. 
A Friday evening class meeting was also organized for the older members. 
Through the energetic efforts of Brother White a directory was prepared with 
photographs of all the churches, their location, names of pastors, times of meet- 
ing, etc., and placed in the various hotels, the postoffice and other places for the 
benefit of strangers. 

During this pastorate the missionary work was taken up with added zeal and 



560 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

renewed effort and the introduction of pyramid mite boxes materially increased 
the funds of the society. Amounts were raised by the Ladies' Aid Society and 
expended for parsonage furniture and plans were also begun for the erection 
of a parsonage, being carried into effect the following year. The pastorate of 
Rev. G. S. White was followed by that of Rev. D. W. Knight, a transfer from 
the East Ohio conference. 

The history of the church under Rev. Mr. Knight's ministry, covering a 
period of two years, may best be told in his own words, as taken from the 
following letter: 

"My pastorate of First M. E. Church, Fargo, began December 22, 1889, 
and closed November i, 1891. Was transferred from the East Ohio to the 
North Dakota conference by Bishop Hurst and appointed to the First M. E. 
Church by Bishop Mallalieu about the 25th of November, 1889. Rev. D. C. 
Plannette was presiding elder; Rev. G. S. White was my predecessor. We 
arrived in Fargo, December 21, 1889, and Sabbath morning, the 22d, first met 
in worship that royal people. Our acquaintance grew rapidly, and I soon found 
I had a choice people in the city numbering about 125. An active Epworth 
League and a wide awake Sabbath school greeted the pastor. 

"Christmas festivities and receptions opened the doors in many of the best 
homes of the city for new friends and friendships that warm our hearts whenever 
thoughts revert to Fargo and pastorate there. 

"The winter of 1889 and 1890 was taken up with visitation and some revival 
efforts, which we have reason to believe were not wholly in vain. 

"With the opening spring came the enterprise of building a parsonage, in 
which enterprise, I had been informed, I was expected to lead. 

"The work was undertaken and, everything favoring, the ist of November, 
1890, we moved into our new home, a gem of modest beauty, one of the cosiest 
and most attractive for the cost in the city. It cost $2,000. Church repairs and 
improvements of property added made a total of nearly $2,500, which was all 
paid by the good people and no debt remained when Dr. May began his pastorate 
in November, 1891. 

"Soliciting money for church enterprise is often accompanied by unpleasant 
greeting from the solicited, but I must say I had the fewest while soliciting. On 
the other hand, I had most pleasant experiences and especially from the non-mem- 
bers. When asked to help in the enterprise they would say, T will help you for 
you have a noble people, men and women, in your church who occupy the first 
place among us and are worthy.' My heart often warmed and glowed when I 
heard my own thus commended and honored. 

"With this standing it is no marvel that First Church raised nearly $8,000 
for all purposes in the two years. The membership varied with losses and gains ; 
losses by death and removal. 

"Mrs. Thomas Hanson and Mrs. Bamford and others died. Many came in 
by letter and without, yet the gain, above all losses, left some advance in the 
membership. Benevolences increased steadily, fellowship grew and the spiritual 
life magnified, until there was a most happy state of soul in the church. For 
all this I take no especial credit. The church was on the verge of growth and 
development. I entered at an opportune time and went with the tides that bore ■ 
on to prosperity. To God be all the praise, for under my successor's pastorate 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 561 

for five years the tides widened and deepened, until the First Church has taken 

first rank in the great Northwest. 

"Blessings divine on Fargo and the First M. E. Church." 

This letter shows for itself the sweet and unselfish spirit of our brother 

Knight, who is deserving of much more credit for the favorable conditions he 

notes than he accords to himself. 

NORTH DAKOTA METHODISM, BY REV. CHARLES A. MACNAMARA 

What is now known as the North Dakota Conference of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church was formerly incorporated in the Minnesota Conference, and the an- 
nual gathering of that body of ministers, assembled in the young and aspiring 
City of Fargo, Dakota Territory, in the fall of 1881, Bishop Cyrus D. Foss presid- 
ing. In 1884, the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church granted 
the request of the Minnesota Conference that the Red River Valley District 
(which comprises all of what is now the State of North Dakota) be formed into 
a mission conference. There was appended to the order for the formation of 
the mission, "an enabling act." The North Dakota Mission, embracing all of 
what is now the State of North Dakota, met in Fargo, October 2, 1884. Bishop 
Chas. H. Fowler presided. There were fourteen ministers present. The statis- 
tical table shows that there were 2,016 members and probationers; that seven- 
teen churches had been erected at a cost of $56,200, and six parsonages, valued 
at $7,000, and there were thirty-seven Sunday schools, with an enrollment of 
teachers, officers and scholars numbering 2,125. Ministerial support amounted 
to $16,767. 

The second session of the Mission Conference was held in Wahpeton, Sep- 
tember 24, 1885. At the next session of the Mission Conference, which assembled 
in Grand Forks, October 14, 1886, the authority given in the enabling act was 
made use of and the North Dakota Annual Conference was organized, having 
an enrollment of twenty ministers and six probationers. Bishop William L. 
Harris presided. The conference was divided into two districts, having Grand 
Forks as the head of the northern part of the conference and Fargo as the head 
of the southern part of the conference. 

The first session of the conference after its organization was held in Fargo, 
October 19, 1887. Articles of incorporation presented by William H. White 
were signed and acknowledged. 

Bishop Cyrus D. Foss presided at this conference. Seven trustees were 
appointed, of which Mr. William H. White was elected chairman. A half sec- 
tion of land had been deeded by Mr. and Mrs. H. P. Hovey of Freedom, 111., 
for the benefit of the conference claimants, and on motion it was decided to 
improve the land. At this early stage this young conference was found taking 
steps to locate an institution of learning, which did not take material form for 
several years. 

At this conference North Dakota elected its first representatives to the 
General Conference, twenty-five votes were cast, Rev. D. C. Pianette received 
twenty-one and was declared elected. The laymen were called to order and 
welcomed by the Fargo delegate to the Lay Electoral Conference. William H. 
White nominated Dr. S. J. Hill, of Fargo, who was then elected lay delegate 



562 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

to the General Conference. Rev. Dr. Jackson, a chaplain in the United States 
army, addressed the joint conference on his early experiences as a pioneer 
preacher in North Dakota. It is notable that even in those days of our terri- 
torial organization, when we had a county local option law, granted by the Terri- 
torial Legislature, the lay conference was calling for the submission of the 
liqtior question to a vote of the people, "independent of all political parties." A 
thing which was actualized two years later, when the State of North Dakota 
came into the Union with a prohibitory clause, adopted separately, by a majority 
of the voters. 

Of those whose names appear in the conference roll, only three remain at 
this writing, namely, Chas. A. Macnamara, superintendent of the Fargo district, 
Henry P. Cooper and William R. Morrison, in the order of seniority given. 

The next session of the conference was held in Jamestown, Bishop John F. 
Hurst presiding. Most of the time at this long-to-be-remembered conference 
was consumed in a church trial which, after all, failed to bring conviction of 
any serious wrong, and which might have been avoided by the exercise of a 
little brotherly kindness. A third district was formed at this conference. The 
appointments had grown so that sixty-eight ministers were stationed, with forty- 
four church buildings and seventeen parsonages. Members and probationers, 

3,631- 

Thirteen years prior to this, the first church organization in the state had 
been eii'ected, in Fargo, of which Mr. William H. White was the only male 
member, and he was elected superintendent of the first Sunday school organiza- 
tion in the northern part of Dakota Territory. 

A pebble in the streamlet, scant 

Has turned the course of many a river. 
A dew drop on the tiny plant 

Has warped the giant oak forever. 

Bishop Hurst predicted that before many years North Dakota would be a 
field of activities supporting several conferences. 

In the reports of the presiding elders made to the conference of 1889, at 
Drayton, we read of the failure of crops and of the requests from several places 
that no minister be sent for the next year. But the conference did not think that 
the Methodist preacher should shirk the hardships to which the people were 
subjected. The pastors were appointed, and without one exception, all went to 
their fields of labor. . Presiding Elder Hovis, by vote of the conference, was 
given permission to go to some of the eastern conferences and make an appeal 
for help for some of the very needy fields in the Northwest District. From 
the report of the committee on education we find that the location of the college 
was still a problem, with eight of our young cities desiring it. At the Lisbon 
conference, October, 1890, action was taken which required the decision of this 
question of location, and on February 25, 189 1, Wahpeton was selected and 
Dr. J. N. Fradenburgh was elected to the presidency at a salary of $2,000. 

On June 4, 1891, Bishop Fitzgerald laid the comer-stone of a building which 
was to cost $40,000, and it was named "Red River Valley University." Wm. H. 
White was elected chairman of the board of trustees. During the year 1905 the 
seat of the school was changed and was located at Grand Forks. The building 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 563 

at Wahpeton was sold to the state and is being used as the State Science School. 
"Wesley College," the new name given to the old corporation, was affiliated with 
the Grand Forks University. 

Rev. D. C. Pianette, D. D., did much for the educational interests of the 
church in the state, as well as the religious. He published a church paper entitled 
The Dakota Methodist. An old style camp meeting was held at Carlisle, 
Pembina County, July, 1884, under his direction. This was the very earliest 
efiort of this kind made in the northern part of the territory, and was continued 
with great profit to that part of the conference for several years. Others were 
held at Hamline, County of Richland, and Mayville, in Traill County, on the 
Goose River. Rev. Chas. A. Macnamara preached the first sermon at the Carlisle 
camp ground. There is at present a permanent camp ground of ten acres located 
at Jamestown, which is well sustained. It is worthy of note that the first efforts 
to locate a Chautauqua Assembly in the state were made by a company of the 
Methodist ministers. Devils Lake was the place chosen. Dr. Eugene May, the 
pastor of First Church of Fargo, with Rev. C. W. Collinge and Rev. Jacob A. 
Hovis were the promoters of this summer assembly. 

In June, 1893, the City of Fargo was swept by fire and two-thirds of the 
business section was destroyed, and the newly erected Second Methodist Church, 
located on Robert Street, was totally burned. But the congregation immediately 
began arrangements under the leadership of Presiding Elder D. C. Pianette to 
rebuild. At this time Dr. M. V. B. Knox was president of the Red River Valley 
University, with four additional members of the faculty. 

The First Church of Fargo had undertaken a new brick building to cost 
$25,000. On the last night of the old year, 1896, at the watch night service 
started in the old building, the entire congregation passed into the new church 
building with singing, and this, the third church building erected by this congre- 
gation, was occupied and pronounced the "finest church in the state," at that 
time. There was present at this service Dr. J. B. Starkey, the first pastor of the 
church, and later a presiding elder in this state, who headed the procession, 
bearing on his shoulders the pulpit, which he had made years before, for use in 
the first church building. This was the only piece of church furniture which 
was carried from the old church to the new one. Rev. W. H. Vance was pastor. 

About this time the Grand Forks congregation had built their second struc- 
ture, a fine red brick, at a cost of $25,000. 

The Epworth League was in the height of its usefulness, and great and 
inspiring meetings were planned for in the state conventions, for the hosts of 
enthusiastic young people. At the conference of 1900, at Grand Forks, Bishop 
C. C. McCabe consecrated Mrs. K. M. Cooper a deaconess in the church and 
playfully called her "The Daughter of the Regiment." At this conference. 
Bishop McCabe delivered his famous lecture on "The Bright Side of Life in 
Libby Prison." At the 1900 General Conference, United States Senator Martin 
N. Johnson was one of the lay delegates. Rev. J. G. Moore was appointed to 
have charge of the Minot District. It was at a period when the influx of settlers 
to our western prairies was greater than it had been for years. He was the man 
for the occasion, and in five years brought about wonderful results for God 
and Methodism. 

At the same time Rev. S. A. Dan ford was placed in charge of the Fargo 



564 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

District, which reached from the east to the west hue of the state, arid aboui 
one-third of the distance from north to south. Five years of consecrated effort 
made a most remarkable change in the reHgious and material interest of that 
portion of the state. 

In October, 1906, Bishop C. C. McCabe made his last visit to our state and 
conference. The date of the opening of the conference was the anniversary of 
his seventieth birthday, and amid great rejoicing his brethren tendered him a 
reception and most hearty congratulations. Mrs. McCabe was with him, and 
they responded with a song, while the large audience passed in front of the 
rostrum and shook hands with the happy couple. 

In 1908, Bismarck started the erection of their $20,000 church building, and 
named it the McCabe Memorial Church. The corner-stone was laid by Bishop 
D. H. Moore. The membership of the conference had so increased that the 
delegation to the General Conference was now six, three laymen and three min- 
isters. Judge Chas. A. Pollock headed the lay delegates at the conference of 
1908. A solicitor was appointed to create an endowment fund for the confer- 
ence claimants and in four years there was raised, in cash and pledges, $138,000. 

At the same time Mr. William H. White was given entire control of the 
funds accruing for the crop raised on the conference land, which he had invested 
and reinvested until it had increased to $16,000, and it was named "The William 
H. White Fund." 

At the present time there are 175 regular appointments made to the churches 
of the conference in the state, with five appointments of pastors to special work 
and college duties. 

The church membership has increased to almost thirteen thousand, and invest- 
ment in church and parsonage property has reached $1,018,795, and pastoral 
support has attained the sum of $160,566, while the annual contributions to the 
benevolent causes has grown to $29,645. Wesley College has two fine buildings, 
the gift of Mr. Sayre and N. G. Larimore, valued at $50,000. Dr. E. P. Robert- 
son is president. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

The State University was organized under the provisions of a bill passed 
by the Territorial Legislature February i6, 1883. By this law it was to be a 
coeducational institution styled the State University of North Dakota, made up 
of a combined college of arts and letters and a normal college. It is of some 
interest to note in this name the first official use of the words North Dakota, the 
sister institution in what was later South Dakota being called the University of 
Dakota. On the same date an act was approved providing for the issuance of 
territorial bonds to the amount of $30,000 to provide for the construction of the 
present main building of the university. By the same act the bond issue was 
made contingent on the gift to the territory of a site of not less than ten acres 
and a well equipped observatory costing not less than ten thousand dollars. 

In pursuance of the act of organization, Governor Ordway apppointed the 
first board of trustees as follows : Dr. W. T. Collins, Grand Forks ; Dr. R. M. 
Evans, Minto ; E. A. Healy, Drayton ; Dr. C. E. Teel and James Twamley, Grand 
Forks. At a meeting held on May 16, 1883, the board formally accepted as a site 
for the new institution a tract of land twenty acres in extent situated about a 
mile west of Grand Forks. This offer was made by William Budge, Michael 
Ohmer and John McKelvey, who also gave bonds for the payment of $10,000 
to erect and equip an observatory, thus fulfilling the legal requirement for the 
issue of the bonds. Three other very excellent sites were offered by citizens of 
Grand Forks, one located on the present site of Riverside Park, the others in the 
same vicinity but farther to the north, all on the Red River. These offers, how- 
ever, do not seem to have been accompanied by any provision for the $10,000 
to build and equip an observatory as required by law. The corner-stone of the 
first structure on the present university grounds. Main Building, was laid Octo- 
ber 2, 1883. Grand Master O. S. Gifford, of the Dakota Grand Lodge of Free 
Masons, presided at the ceremonies ; Governor Ordway made a brief address 
in which he warmly congratulated the citizens of the territory that thus early 
in their history they were preparing to educate their sons and daughters on their 
own soil ; while the principal address was given by Dr. D. L. Kiehle, superin- 
tendent of public instruction of Minnesota. 

Equipment and maintenance for the first two years of the new institution 
were provided by an act approved March 7, 1883. By this act $1,000 was appro- 
priated for apparatus; $600 for fuel, light, and janitor service; $1,000 for inci- 
dental expenses, and $400 for improvement of grounds. An annual appropria- 
tion not to exceed $5,000 was also made for the salaries of the president and 

565 



566 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

other members of the instructional force. This may serve in some sort as a 
measure of the progress of the institution during later years. 

In the Federal enabling act of February 22, 1889, admitting North Dakota 
as a state, section 14 sets aside 72 sections, or 46,080 acres, in the new state for 
university purposes. The fund created by the sale of these lands was to con- 
stitute a permanent university fund, the interest alone being available for use. 
In section 17 of the same act an additional grant of 40,000 acres was granted to 
the School of Mines. By a provision in the state constitution, section 215, article 
19, the location of the School of Mines was fixed at Grand Forks, and since its 
establishment, in 1880, it has been an inseparable part of the State University. 

On September 3, 1884, the trustees met to make arrangements for the open- 
ing of the university the following week. There was only one building on the 
campus and that not fully completed. Living rooms for the faculty, dormitories 
for the students, a boarding department, class room, a library and museum must 
all be found in the single building. It was close quarters for so large a family, 
and not a little friction developed in the course of adjustment to the new condi- 
tions. The faculty that met the students on the opening day of the first year, 
September 8, 1884, consisted of Dr. Wm. M. Blackburn, president and professor 
of metaphysics; Henry Montgomery, vice president and professor of natural 
sciences ; Webster Merrifield, assistant professor of Greek and Latin, and Mrs. 
E. H. Scott, preceptress and instructor in mathematics and English. After Presi- 
dent Blackburn's single year of service, Professor Montgomery was chosen as 
acting president, which place he filled for two years. In 1887 Dr. Homer B. 
Sprague was chosen president, his term extending to March 31, 1891, when he 
resigned. Webster Merrifield, now professor of Greek and Latin, was chosen 
acting president for the remainder of the year. 

During the first seven years the student attendance had grown from 79 to 151. 
Three graduating classes, the first in 1889, numbering a total of twenty, had 
received degrees. The catalogue announcement of 1891 shows that the faculty 
had been increased by the addition of five professors, H. B. Woodworth, John 
Macnie, Ludovic Estes, E. J. Babcock and Leon S. Roudiez. W^illiam Patten 
was also a new man, taking the place of Henry Montgomery, resigned. Five 
additional instructors and a laboratory assistant brought the instructional force 
to the number of thirteen, a very considerable increase since 1884, both in num- 
bers and in departments represented. By legislative act, approved March 31, 
1890, there was formally added to the State University the School of Mines 
and a military department. Provision for instruction in the latter had been made 
by the trustees after the first year, but in 1891 Lieut. Leon S. Roudiez, Fifteenth 
United States Infantry, was regularly detailed for the service. The total appro- 
priation provided for by the act of February 27, 1891, for the biennial period, 
was $60,700, of which $41,800 was devoted to the payment of salaries. Scandi- 
navian was required to be taught by an act approved March 6, 1891, and G. T. 
Rygh was appointed by the board of trustees as instructor in these languages. 

On Tune 16. 1887, a severe wind storm entirely demolished the west wing of 
the main building above the basement, blew down the chimneys, and destroyed 
the cupola. Professor Montgomery's collections in the museum were almost a 
total loss. Fortunately, vacation had begun the day before, and only the janitor's 
family were in the building. At a public meeting, held in Grand Forks the next 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 567 

day to make provision for those in immediate need of aid, resolutions were read 
voicing a very general sentiment in favor of removing the institution to a site 
nearer the city. The board of trustees, in view of this feeling and on account 
of the unexpected burden of expense for repairs thus placed upon them, sent 
the president of their board, W. N. Roach, to Bismarck to consult Gov. Louis 
K. Church as to the best manner of dealing with the matter. At a meeting held 
on June 28th, President Roach reported that the governor did not feel justified 
in authorizing the removal of the university without legislative sanction, as it 
would establish a dangerous precedent, but that he would do all in his power to 
assist in making repairs and would recommend to the next Legislature a special 
appropriation for that purpose. Upon hearing this report, the board decided to 
retain the site already selected and to repair Main Building. To meet these 
expenses a loan was authorized from the local banks not to exceed $10,000. 
The repairs made considerably altered the original plan, the cupola being omitted 
and the appearance of both east and west gables much changed. 

A dormitory for the young women was also authorized by the regents at this 
meeting, the funds for which had been provided by an issue of territorial bonds 
to the amount of $20,000 voted at the session of 1887. This building was first 
known as "Ladies' Hall," but by vote of the trustees, October 26, 1889, it was 
changed to "Davis Hall," in memory of a much-loved preceptress, Mrs. Hannah 
E. Davis, who died at the university, March 24, 1898. 

The administration of President Webster Merrifield covers eighteen years, 
1891-1909, a period of substantial growth in all lines of university activity. The 
establishment of a conservatory of music in 1891 brought the student enrollment 
for 1891-1892 up to 341, and though this increase was not maintained in later 
years and the conservatory was changed to a department of music, it served to 
widen the general interest in university work and to attract a new group of 
patrons from all parts of the state. 

The administration, however, was put to a severe test in 1895, when Gov. 
Roger Allin vetoed the educational appropriations of the current legislative ses- 
sion. The normal schools at Valley City and Mayville had their appropriations 
of $24,000 and $24,860 reduced, respectively, to $4,600 and $7,760. The Agri- 
cultural College received $11,250 out of $19,000. The university appropriation 
was reduced from $63,000 to $15,980, or merely enough to complete the current 
college year. Before the veto had been announced a call for a mass meeting in 
Grand Forks to consider what could be done in the matter was circulated by 
the university students. The meeting was held on March 19, 1895. The opinion 
was expressed by several speakers that the citizens of Grand Forks could best 
show their good will by subscribing to a fund to support the university through 
the next two years. A committee was appointed to draft a memorial to be pre- 
sented to Governor Allin. After the veto had been officially announced, a second 
mass meeting was assembled, April 9th, in pursuance of a call issued by Mayor 
W. J. Anderson, and a maintenance committee was chosen to solicit funds. This 
committee, consisting of W. J. Anderson, chairman ; M. F. Murphy, secretary ; 
S. S. Titus, treasurer ; Sidney Clark, R. B. Griffith, Orange Wright, F. R. Fulton, 
and S. W. McLaughlin, appointed sub-committees in the counties throughout the 
state and issued an address which set forth the reasons for asking aid. A few 
quotations from this address will show the nature of their appeal: 



568 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

"Shall the University of North Dakota be closed ? This is the question which 
confronts the people of the state. The closing of the university would be a 
calamity in many ways. It would advertise to the world that North Dakota is 
either unwilling or unable to maintain for her sons and daughters an institution 
of higher learning. We believe that the people are both willing and able, and 
that they will rally to the support of their university. This state is not poor. 
She has come through the critical depression of the past few years as only few 
states have — without either crop failures or business disasters. Her debt limit 
is extremely low. The necessary money could easily be raised by taxation, but 
for the low tax rate as fixed by the constitution. She encourages immigration 
to her fertile fields, but she will certainly neutralize all her efforts in that xlirec- 
tion by proclaiming herself unable or unwilling to maintain her university which 
she inherited from territorial days. She has ever been foremost in education. 
Will she now take her place farthest in the rear? The announcement that North 
Dakota closes her university will mean irreparable injury to our state in business, 
population, education and honor. . . . During the last twelve years this state 
has expended large sums of money and the best energy of many men, and as a 
result has gathered a learned corps of professors, an intelligent clientage of 
students, a university reputation and educational momentum such as is an honor 
to a great state. Close the doors for two years and if they ever open again you 
cannot regather in ten years your scattered forces." . . . 

The board of trustees met the maintenance committee in joint conference 
on May 7, 1895, and voted to accept the funds raised and to give a formal receipt 
signed by the president of the board. The total sum raised from private sub- 
scriptions was $25,622.24. The donors of the larger part of this sum received cer- 
tificates from the board of trustees entitling the holders to repayment when 
legislative appropriation should be made for the purpose. This appropriation 
has not yet been made. About two-thirds of the sum raised came from two 
sources : first, the members of the faculty generously gave up 25 per cent of 
their salaries, a total of $8,250; secondly, the citizens of Grand Forks subscribed 
.$9,130. Most of the remainder was contributed from the counties of Grand 
Forks, Walsh, Pembina, Burleigh, Nelson, Ramsey, Cavalier, Pierce, Ransom, 
Cass and Steele, in sums varying in the order of the counties named. From out- 
side the state the sum of $1,287.50 was subscribed. On May 4, 1897, the board 
of trustees formally received and adopted the report of the maintenance com- 
mittee covering the expenditure of most of the fund raised, with only a small 
balance remaining. 

This episode in the history of the university was not altogether an unfortu- 
nate one, since it served to bind' its immediate constituency closer together by 
mutual sacrifice for the general welfare. This feeling of solidarity was still 
further strengthened by the refusal of President Merrifield to accept the offer 
of the presidency of the University of Montana in the spring of 1895. During 
these two years the faculty and students of the university and the citizens of 
the state drew closer together than ever before in their mutual effort to maintain 
this important state institution unimpaired through the most serious crisis in its 
history. The need of a permanent source of revenue having thus been shown, 
the friends of the university devised a plan of a mill tax which was enacted into 
law at a later session of the Legislature. By an act approved April 28, 1899, 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 5C9 

a fixed revenue for the State University was provided by a two-fifths mill tax. 
This fraction has been changed by later enactments, but it still serves its original 
purpose. 

By legislative act approved February 26, 1895, the State University was given 
the duty of making a geological and natural history sur\'ey of the state. The 
professor of geology was named as ex-officio state geologist. Prof. E. J. Babcock 
had joined the faculty in 1S89 as instructor in chemistry and English, and the 
year following was made professor of chemistry and geology, and became, there- 
fore, in 1895, the state geologist. This position he held until 1901, when the 
department of geology was separated from the School of Mines. This has 
resulted in the appearance of some excellent reports, five in number, dealing 
with the general geological features of the state. Some of the volumes contain 
special reports on the valuable natural resources of the state, such as lignite coal, 
clay, cement and gas, the utilization of which will usher in the manufacturing 
era in the industrial development of our state. 

The library of the university during the college year of 1884-5 contained 
742 volumes, most of which were a donation from President Blackburn, During 
the first year of President Sprague's administration it was made a depository for 
government publications, and increased to 2,000 volumes. For the first few years 
the secretary of the board of trustees seems to have acted as librarian ex-officio, 
Imt in the catalogue of 1888-89, Professor Merrifield, of the department of Greek 
and Latin, is named as the first librarian. The office of librarian passed later 
to other members of the faculty, with graduate students as assistants, until, in 
the year 1901-2, Cora E. Dill held the position as first regular librarian. At this 
time the library was located in three large rooms on the second floor of Main 
Building and contained 8,000 volumes. Marion E. Twiss held the position as 
librarian for the next two years, and was succeeded by George F. Strong. 
During his term of service a catalog^ier was added to the library force and the 
preparation of the first regular card catalogue was begun in 1907. In 1908 Mr. 
Strong resigned and Charles H. Compton was chosen as his successor. The 
library had grown very rapidly in all departments during the four years of Mr. 
Strong's service, numbering, in 1908, about twenty-five thousand bound volumes 
and five thousand pamphlets. For the past four years Clarence W, Summer has 
been librarian. The present library numbers some fifty-nine thousand volumes. 
The completion of the Carnegie Library, which was occupied in the fall of 1908, 
gave the university more space for growth and specialization along lines of 
development much needed by both faculty and students. Among the special 
collections in the library may be mentioned the Judge Cochrane collection of 
2,000 volumes, donated in 1904 by Mrs. Cochrane ; the Hill Railway Transporta- 
tion collection, donated by James J. Hill ; and the Scandinavian collection of 
nearly three thousand volumes, partly donated by the Scandinavian citizens of 
the state and partly purchased by a special appropriation provided by the board 
of trustees. 

The erection of new buildings and the perfecting of the general university 
equipment make the administration of President Merrifield a notable one. The 
present Macnie Hall, the east portion of which was built in 1883, provided a 
much needed dormitory for the young men. It was erected on an old foimda- 
tion laid in 1884 for an astronomical observatory. The expense of the founda- 



570 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

tion was defrayed from the small portion which could be collected of the original 
$10,000 pledged in 1884 when the university site was chosen. Budge Hall, now 
the dormitory for the young men, was built in 1899. I' was named in honor of 
William Budge, a trustee of the university for sixteen years and one of the most 
trusted of President Merrifield's corps of advisers. The catalogue for 1900 
announces, for the first time, the School of Mines, the College of Mechanical 
Engineering, and the College of Law. Two new buildings were erected to accom- 
modate the enlargement of the university work thus provided for. Science Hall 
in 1901, and the Mechanical Arts building in 1902. The president's house was 
added the next year. The work of the School of Mines was carried on in Science 
Hall until 1908, when a building was erected for that special purpose. During 
the same year the new power house, the gymnasium and the Carnegie Library 
were added. The original 20-acre campus of 1891 had been increased by pur- 
chase and gift to more than a hundred acres. Of this addition Doctor Merri- 
field, in 1906, gave twenty acres, lying immediately east of the old campus. On 
this tract are now located the library, the School of Mines and Teachers' Col- 
lege. It may be said here that in 1910 the trustees purchased another 20-acre 
lot lying east of the last mentioned tract. The university commons was com- 
pleted in 191 1 and stands practically in the center of the campus. These mate- 
rial improvements are manifestations of a deep interest on the part of the 
state government, and redound to the credit of the university management. 

When the trustees of the Methodist College at Wahpeton, acting upon the 
suggestion of President Merrifield, who since 1901 had advocated the policy, 
decided to change its location to Grand Forks and sought affiliation with the 
university, they were received with admirable fairness and liberality. An excel- 
lent location was secured by the college, just across the street from the univer- 
sity campus, and the erection of buildings begun in 1906. Provision for exchange 
of credits on the usual collegiate basis was made in 1905 and the experiment 
of affiliation launched. The experiment, thus made, has proven a success. It 
has been watched with interest by educators and it has seemingly added a vital 
phase to state education, which must necessarily be non-sectarian' and, in the 
eyes of many, non-religious. Wesley College has brought to North Dakota the 
best of musical talent as well as several leaders in the fields of theological 
research. Two dormitories, built by the college, have been of service to univer- 
sity students. 

Another matter of considerable significance that came through the initiative 
of President Merrifield was the creating, in 1895, of the State High School 
Board, with the president of the university an ex-officio member thereof. This 
brought the institution into close touch with the schools from which it draws 
its students and for which it prepares teachers. The important questions of 
high school credits, examinations, inspection, text-books and curriculum now 
come to a greater or less extent under the direction or control of this board. 
The annual high school conference, first held in 1901, the interscholastic meet, 
beginning with 1903, and the state declamation contest, all of which are regularly 
held at the university in May, each year, have served to identify the interests 
of the high schools closely with those of the university. 

When it became officially known that President Merrifield had decided to 
sever his connection with the .'^tate L^niversity, after a quarter of a century of 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 571 

service, the trustees at once began the search for a new head of the institution. 
Their selection of Dr. Frank LeRond McVey, chairman of the Minnesota Tax 
Commission, and formerly a member of the faculty of the State University of 
that state, gave satisfaction to the alumni and citizens of the state, as well as to 
those more closely connected with the university. President-elect McVey lost 
no time in making himself acquainted with the special needs and problems of our 
institution. He visited Bismarck and met many of the members of the Legis- 
lature then in session, speaking at a joint meeting of the House and Senate appro- 
priation committees on the needs of the State University and its relation to other 
educational institutions in the state. He also spoke before a joint session of 
both houses on the general subject of state taxation. The favorable impression 
made upon the Legislature at this visit had much to do in securing the generous 
appropriation of that session. With this introduction to those responsible for 
the wise expenditure of public funds, the new president assumed the duties of 
his office in 1909. 

The administration of President McVey, has been fully in line with the 
progressive policy demanded by the changing conditions in the state. The 
appropriation secured in the legislature of 1909 allowed the erection of two beau- 
tiful buildings during the two years following, the Teachers College building and 
the Commons building. The use of a more durable building material and the 
adoption of a new style of architecture in these buildings has much improved the 
appearance of the campus and will add much to the permanence and beauty of 
future buildings on the larger campus that has been provided for them. 

At the end of a year's service in the university and after becoming intimately 
acquainted with the particular problems of the institution, especially from the 
point of view of the citizens and taxpayers whom he had met during the course 
of his many lecture trips through the state, President McVey came to his formal 
inauguration thoroughly in touch with the constituency of the university. In his 
inaugural address he expressed his deliberate conclusions, drawn from his long 
experience as university man and a public officer in Minnesota, and from his 
more recent contact with the new educational conditions here. He said: 

"It is time to recognize the fact that a university is a great latent force that 
can be utilized in many directions. It ought to be closely related to every depart- 
ment of the state. It should be the medium through which statistics are gathered, 
information collected, advice given, problems solved, in fact, real part of the state 
government. 

"It is not beyond the truth to say that a vmiversity is a beacon light to the 
people of a commonwealth, pointing out to them, not only where advances are to 
be made in the realms of commerce and trade, but in the fields of morals, general 
knowledge, and better living ; and vice versa, we may say that there is no clearer 
indication of the advances a people have made than that set by their university. 
Once free from political control, and truly of the people in the larger democratic 
sense, it means that the people of a commonwealth, where such an institution 
exists, are truly turned toward real progress and the light of the lamp of civili- 
zation." 

The State University has been able to accomplish much it its position as the 
leading educational institution in the state, especially in recent years. Its agen- 
cies for state service have been very greatly increased during the present admin- 



572 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

ist ration, and their efficiency and usefulness are coming to be universally recog- 
nized. A brief account of some of the more important of these may very properly 
come at the close of this general sketch. 

Service to the state can be rendered by an institution in many ways other than 
through direct dealing with the student body. It is now almost universally recog- 
nized that one of the chief functions of a university is performed through the 
work of research, investigation, both directly, in the definite scientific discoveries 
made, and indirectly, through the student thus trained. The University of North 
Dakota has not been able to throw emphasis upon this phase of the work until 
recently. Its departments were too broad, and therefore its men attempted to 
cover too much ground, and its laboratories inadequately equipped. For these 
reasons and others graduate work had had but little recognition. 

Looking in the direction of this larger usefulness, the graduate department was 
organized during the university year of 1909-10, and every possible encourage- 
ment is now given to this work, even to making provision for productive scholar- 
ships and fellowships open to general competition. j\Iany of the departments of 
the university are co-operating in this important phase of work by maintaining 
graduate seminars where the results of original research are discussed at regular 
sessions. A considerable number of graduates of the university have successfully 
completed graduate work at older institutions in the past five years. 

The separation of the department of chemistry from the School of Mines in 
1910 allowed for a much needed expansion in the work of the department. This 
increased opportunity thus given for advanced work in chemistry was speedily 
justified by Dr. Abbott's discovery of a method for the detection of cocaine used in 
adulteration of snuff, a problem of the utmost importance as aflfecting public 
health and one that had so far baffled some of the ablest chemists of the country. 
Other constructive pieces of work have been done to jutsify the development of 
the department. 

In 1909 the department of physics was reorganized and enlarged. Three men 
now give their entire time to the work making it possible to add graduate work of 
a high order. The department has investigated a series of special problems of 
great commercial interest, such as the specific heats of North Dakota clays and 
their thermal and electrical conductivities. It has been discovered in the course of 
the investigation that these clays prove very satisfactory material for the construc- 
tion of high grade electric resistance furnaces, which have heretofore been pur- 
chased abroad. The mechanical department, established at the beginning of the 
present college year, and imder the direction of the department of physics, is 
proving invaluable to the scientific and engineering interests of the university. 
In the repair and construction of delicate and costly instruments and apparatus, 
it has filled a unique place, already contributing to the success of half a score of 
the important departments of the institution. The work of Dr. A. H. Taylor, 
head of the department of Physics, in developing a wireless station, has been pro- 
ductive of large results in the field of wireless research and practical application. 

The legislature of 1909, in addition to making appropriations for needed build- 
ings on the campus, also provided for two new agencies of great value, the Mining 
sub-station at Hebron, in the heart of the mining regions of the state, and the 
Biological station at Devils Lake. The former, the Mining sub-station, has already 
done a notable work, the result of the year's experiments being the discovery of a 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 573 

practical mode of briquetting the lignite coal of the state, so as to make of it a 
high grade fuel. The same process also secures a large volume of excellent coal- 
gas capable of being used either as fuel or light. This discovery alone is worth 
more to the state than the entire cost of the maintenance and equipment of the 
university up to the present time, for it places within reach of the manufacturer 
a cheap and excellent source of power in our extensive coal beds that underlie 
more than one-third of the state. Dean Babcock and Dr. Taylor of the physics 
department have pursued still further an important investigation into the heat 
values of lignite and other coals, to detennine how they may best be utilized for 
power. The work in ceramics, organized in 1910, has a similar problem to solve 
with reference to the deposits of clay in the state, and much valuable data is being 
collected bearing on the manufacture of clay products ranging from the finest 
grades of pottery to drain and sewer pipe. The results that have now been 
attained in our ceramics field have guaranteed the existence of a clay-working 
industry in North Dakota, which will ultimately be of great value. 

The problem given the Biological station was the study of the animal and 
vegetable life of the state, that they might be more fully utilized for scientific 
and commercial purposes. The station is well equipped with a commodious and 
well-appointed building having laboratory, library, museum and lecture-room con- 
veniences, also with all needed apparatus for the successful prosecution of such 
work as contemplated. The biological work of the summer session of the uni- 
versity is now regularly done at the station. Although the work is still young, 
very definite results have already been obtained and much progress made in the in- 
vestigation of such matters as restocking the lakes of the state with fish, the grow- 
ing of trees in a prairie state, the preservation and enlargement of bird life and 
similar activities. 

The head of the department of history, as secretary of the State Historical 
Society, has made a preliminary archaeological survey of the state and begun the 
collection of a valuable museum at Bismarck. The State Historical Library at the 
state capitol, which has been built up during the past ten years, is a very complete 
collection of historical material relating to the Northwest and to Canada. Four 
volumes of collections have already been issued by the secretary as editor for the 
Historical Society. In these volumes are to be found many contributions by uni- 
versity students of the Historical Seminar, which has been one of the regular 
features of the work in the department of history since 1905. In the end these 
labors will result in the production of an accurate and comprehensive history of 
the state, which is much needed, especially in the schools. 

Among the first suggestions that President McVey made to the faculty upon 
assuming the duties of office was one looking toward the establishment by the 
institution of a high grade periodical, scientific and literary in character, that 
should serve both as a medium of exchange between this institution and others 
and also a channel through which the members of the instructional force might 
give to the public some of the results of their investigations, their discoveries and 
their matured thought. The matter was most carefully considered and resulted 
in a recommendation to the board of trustees that such action be taken. The 
trustees acted favorably and the Quarterly Journal was established, the first 
number bearing the date, October, 1910. The publication has met with much 
local favor and received a warm welcome from the scholarly world. 



574 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

The grouping of colleges, departments and courses having a common purpose, 
a notice of which first appeared in the catalogue issued in 1910, has served to 
unify and strengthen much that would otherwise be less efficient in a general uni- 
versity plan. The Division of Medicine, which has included the College of 
Medicine, established in 1905, and the Public Health Laboratory, established in 
1907, was increased by the addition of a course for the training of nurses, under 
an efficient director. Similarly, the two colleges of Mining Engineering and 
Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, with the Course in Civil Engineering, were 
first grouped under the Division of Engineering. By a recent action of the present 
Board of Regents, all the engineering work of the University has been brought 
under one head. Dean E. J. Babcock will have direction of the College of Engi- 
neering. The Division of Education included the Teachers College and the Model 
High School. Teachers College, established in 1905, is the development of the 
old normal college which dated from the establishment of the university in 1883, 
while the Model High School is the old preparatory department retained as a lab- 
oratory for Teachers College. In 191 1 the name "Teachers College" was changed 
to "School of Education," in conformity to the re-organization which makes it 
practically a professional school. 

The Law School, established in 1889, is rapidly becoming a very potent factor 
in the development of the institution, and of the state itself as well. The entrance 
requirements have been gradually raised and the course of instruction enlarged 
and enriched until, beginnig with i909-i9io,a full three years professional course, 
resting upon graduation from a four year high school course, was required for 
the law degree. Beginning with 1917, two years of college work will be a pre- 
requisite for entrance. 

The influence of a body of mature graduates, such as the Law School has 
been sending out, has been out of all proportion to their numbers; and, in view 
of the fact that a relatively large portion of the state is still receiving the perma- 
nent and stable elements of its population, especially of the professional and busi- 
ness class, the importance of the Law School as a formative influence in our new 
state can hardly be overestimated. 

The student body, likewise, is becoming better organized. The Women's League, 
organized in 1906, and the Men's Union, in 19 10, have already done good service 
and give promise of great usefulness in the years to come. The Men's Union 
was last year combined, by student vote, with the Y. M. C. A. The arrangement, 
though temporary, may become a pemianent one ultimatelv. The new gymnasium, 
opened in 1908, gives ample accommodation for in-door sports and training for 
out-door events. In 1910 the trustees purchased the twenty acres on the east 
side of the campus, and here there has been prepared a permanent athletic field, 
large enough to accommodate the growing student body for many years to come. 

For many years a summer school has been maintained at the universitv. mainly 
for the preparation of teachers for the rural schools. In this work the State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction and the county superintendents of nearby 
counties co-operated, the university merely furnishing the buildings and general 
equipment. There seemed, however, to be a growing demand for opportunities 
to do more advanced work which was met by establishing, in 1910, a university 
summer session. This extension of university work has been so well received that 
practically the entire equipment of the university is now available for use through- 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 575 

out the year. The enrollment of the summer session has steadily increased. This is 
but one of the many things that the present management is doing to make the insti- 
tution serve the state in every possible way. It is but one indication that we have 
caught the spirit of service so clearly in evidence throughout the length and breadth 
of the land. 

Another feature of university work that has been pushed very vigorously dur- 
ing the past few years is that of the library. The regular library staiif consists of 
five members with a number of student assistants. The card catalogue titles 
now number about 100,000, and, in addition to making it as useful as possible to 
students and members of the faculty on the grounds, every effort is being put 
forth to make it available to those outside of the university. This is done by the 
preparation of a list of subjects for debates and accompanying bibliographies for 
the high schools, by the loaning of such books as are needed for work in corre- 
spondence courses or the study of any special subject by local clubs or literary 
organizations, and by securing for temporary use in the university library by 
special loans such books as are to be found only in the larger libraries of the coun- 
try. In this way the university has become a reference library and center of gen- 
eral information along literary lines for a circle of readers as wide as the state. 

With the opening of the Public Health Laboratory on July i, 1907, the univer- 
sity entered upon a new field of public service, that of the prolongation of the hu- 
man life, the prevention of disease, and the co-operation with all the regular agen- 
cies of society in the improvement of public health. So efficient has this work of the 
university proved to be, that two branch laboratories were established in 1910, 
at Minot and Bismarck. Among the many problems considered, two of immediate 
and vital importance to the citizens of the state continue to be the subject of re- 
search at the Public Health Laboratory, the purification of the water supply for city 
populations, and a sanitary method of sewage disposal adapted to climate of ex- 
tremes, such as is experienced in our state. Important reports covering valuable 
investigations have already been made and there are still others soon to appear, 
of equal importance. Other problems of public health have been dealt with 
eilectively by the laboratory. Dr. L. D. Bristol has for the past two years carried 
on the work which was so well begun by Dr. G. F. Ruediger. 

The most important single university exercise of the week is Convocation, 
which has developed out of the daily morning chapel exercises of early years. 
Convocation is the weekly gathering of faculty, students and townspeople at the 
Gymnasium to hear some lecturer of note, or some local speaker, on a topic of 
general interest. Within the last two years it has become specially significant as 
furnishing one of the principal means for the transmission to the general university 
body of the current thought in the larger world outside their immediate circle. 

Among all the numerous means for securing a wider scope for university 
activity, none are more significant than those grouped under the Extension Divi- 
sion, created in 1910. President McVey developed the two most important fea- 
tures of this department as a means of meeting a growing need throughout the 
state, and also to utilize more eiifectively our accumulated resources, which were 
at the disposal of the public whenever the adequate means should be provided 
for their distribution. Correspondence courses and extension lectures are proving 
as in other institutions, the best means for reaching the larger university body 
throughout the state. Much remains to be done in perfecting the machinery of 



576 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

this department. President Mc\'ey has helped to pioneer the movement through 
its initial stages, and, as the lecturer most widely in demand, has disseminated the 
ideas of university service among all classes and in every part of the state. The 
division was for two years in charge of Mr. J. J. Pettijohn. Dr. F. C. English was 
director during the year 1914-15. At the beginning of the school year 1915-16, 
the division was reorganized and the work placed under two bureaus, the Bureau 
of Educational Co-operation and the Bureau of Public Information, a secretary 
being placed in charge of each bureau. The Bureau of Public Information rep- 
resents a new phase of extension service in North Dakota in its work of publicity 
and the general spread of public information along various lines. The Bureau of 
Educational Co-operation carries on the older branches of the extension service, 
the correspondence Study Courses, and the university lecture and lyceum courses. 
No summary of the imiversity's work is in any way complete without a word 
as to President McVey and his administration. Since he came to the university, 
there has been a noticeable awakening in all lines of university service. The stand- 
ards of scholarship have been raised. The Extension Division is but one manifes- 
tation of the new conception of the State University, the institution which really 
stands for state-wide service and which is not simply a "Campus school." For 
the acceptance of this large idea in education as a working thing in North Dakota, 
Dr. McVey is very largely responsible. The president has won for the university 
a very important place in the hearts of North Dakota people. Through a 
number of the university's-achievements, he has increased the interest of educators 
in the University of North Dakota, which, catching the best inspiration in college 
circles, has yet found for itself rather unique fields of service. 




^t)e ^tate Jf lag 



Adopted b>- Twelfth Legislative Asseinbh, Chapter 
283, 1!)11, Session Laws. It was the Hag of the Ter- 
ritorial Militia and of the First North Dakota Infantry, 
carried in 37 engagements in the Philippine Islands in 
the Spanish-American War, l<S!)8-i), on the Mexican 
border in the near wear with Mexico in 191G-17, and 
on the battlefields of France in 1917 in the World War 
for Liberty. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 
NORTH DAKOTA VOLUNTEERS 

COMPLETE ROSTER OF THE FIRST NORTH DAKOTA INFANTRY, U. S. V., IN THE CAM- 
PAIGN IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 

COMPANY A FIRST BATTALION 

William P. Moffett, Capt., editor, Bismarck, N. D. ; S. H. Newcomer, ist 
Lieut., printer, Bismarck, N. D. ; William J. McLean, 2d Lieut., printer, Bis- 
marck, N. D. ; Hugh A. Scott, ist Sergt., student, Bismarck, N. D. ; Lynn W. 
Sperry, Q. M. Sergt., rancher, Bismarck, N. D. ; William A. McHugh, Sergt., 
printer, Bismarck, N. D. ; Joseph A. McGinnis, Sergt., engineer, Mandan, N. D. ; 
Alexander H. Louden, Sergt., farmer, Bathgate, N. D. ; Ira A. Correll, Sergt., 
bookkeeper, Munfordsville, Ky. ; Emil Froemmig, Corp., painter, Bismarck, 
N. D. ; Thomas J. Dalton, Corp., cigar-maker, Bismarck, N. D. ; Rudolph W. 
Patzman, Corp., cook, Bismarck, N. D. ; Emil F. Wotz, Corp., farmer, Bis- 
marck, N. D. ; Fred N. Whittaker, Corp., clerk, Grand Forks, N. D. ; Charles 
H. McDonald, Corp., laborer, Bismarck, N. D. ; William J. Pettee, Mus., printer, 
Bismarck., N. D. ; John L. Peterson, Mus., clerk, Bismarck, N. D. ; Charles W. 
Firm, artificer, blacksmith, Centralia, Wash. ; John R. Edick, wagoner, rancher, 
Livona, N. D. ; Wallace Stoddard, cook, aeronaut, Hamilton, 111. 

Privates 

Andrew Anderson, cook, Bismarck, N. D. ; Robert E. Baer, butcher, San 
Francisco, Cal. ; Frank E. Berg, laborer, Bismarck, N. D. ; James L. Black, 
farmer. Sterling, N. D. ; Daniel L. Boutillier, farmer, Williamsport, N. D. ; 
Edmund L. Butt, laborer, Billings, Mont. ; William A. Crumley, cook, Bis- 
marck, N. D. ; William J. Dolan, bookkeeper, Bismarck, N. D. ; John P. Drury, 
boiler-maker, Mandan, N. D. ; John J. Durkin, laborer, San Francisco, Cal. ; 
Arthur C. Eggleston, painter, Fargo, N. D. ; Willard J. Flynn, laborer, Bis- 
marck, N. D. ; Martin Feely, Jr., rancher, Mandan, N. D. ; John Galloway, 
laborer. Sterling, N. D. ; Edward C. Grogan, laborer, Livona, N. D. ; Charles 
Glitschka, clerk, Bismarck, N. D. ; Gilbert Glitschka, laborer, Hawley, Minn. ; 
John Halverson, laborer, Deerfield, Wis.; Jay L. Hill, lineman, Mandan, N. D. ; 
Frank B. Hungerford, horseshoer, Cooperstown, N. D. ; Robert Jager, teamster, 
Bismarck, N. D. ; Mons E. Jerdee, carpenter, Hope, N. D. ; Fred E. Kuhnast, 
carpenter, Fargo, N. D. ; Rudolph Koplen, laborer, Neenah, Wis. ; Richard M. 
Longfellow, boiler-maker. Mandan, N. D. ; Andrew M. Lobner, laborer, Bis- 

Vol. 1—37 

577 



578 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

marck, N. D. ; Louis Larson, laborer, Oshkosh, Wis. ; George W. Moore, cook, 
Bismarck, N. D. ; Frank C. McTavish, laborer, Bismarck, N. D. ; Peter Nelson, 
laborer, Menlo Park, Cal. ; Ziba B. Olen, carpenter, Bismarck, N. D. ; William 
C. Olen, farmer, Bismarck, N. D. ; John Oleson, laborer, Fargo, N. D. ; Thomas 
Perfect, farmer, Sunbury, Ohio; Thomas R. Peterson, laborer, Washburn, N. D. ; 
August Pommrink, machinist, Bismarck, N. D. ; John H. Pauls, carpenter. Green 
Bay, Wis. ; Henry F. Radke, carpenter, Mandan, N. D. ; Benjamin F. Rose, car- 
penter. New Salem, N. D. ; Wm. H. Shaw, laborer, Mandan, N. D. ; Daniel M. 
Slattery, clerk, Bismarck, N. D. ; Alton E. Stone, farmer, McKenzie, N. D. ; 
Nils T. Syverud, clerk, Fargo, N. D. ; Calvin D. Wilson, farmer,, Bismarck, 
N. D. ; Mark Yeater, clerk, Williamsport, N. D. ; Henry F. Zolk, laborer, Bis- 
marck, N. D. 

Discharged 

Piatt Dunn, Corp., Bismarck, N. D., student, by orders, August 25, 1899; 
John P. Boland, Mandan, N. D., farmer, by orders, July 28, 1899; Emil Beegel, 
Fargo, N. D., farmer, by orders, July 28, 1899; Philip P. Dawson, Bismarck, 
N. D., laborer, disability, December 14, 1898; Edward Fay, Jr., Mandan, N. D., 
clerk, disability, November 29, 1898 (36th U. S. V.) ; Michael Glassley, Manila, 
P. I., rancher, by orders, July 12, 1899, reenlisted; Oscar A. Hargrave, Fargo, 
N. D., laborer, by orders, July 28, 1899; Clarence L. Noyes, Valley City, N. D., 
plasterer, disability, March 2, 1899; James R. Ream, Manila, P. L, laborer, by 
orders, July 12, 1899, reenlisted; Harry C. Smith, Bismarck, N. D., laborer, by 
orders, August 16, 1899 (36th U. S. V.) ; William A. Swett, Manila, P. I., 
cigar-maker, by orders, July 28, 1899, reenlisted; Louis O. Swett, Bismarck, 
N. D., laborer, disability, December 24, 1898 (36th U. S. V.) ; George Wegner, 
Beloit, Wis., farmer, disability, January 16, 1899. 

Transferred 

Ed. G. Gorsuch, ist Sergt., Bismarck, N. D., machinist, 2d Lieut. Company 
K, July 19, 1899; Daniel R. Davis, Cooperstown, N. D., lumberman, hospital 
corps, June 22, 1898; Eugene H. Sackett, Fargo, N. D., draughtsman, Company 
B, December 10, 1898; George F. Sullivan, Mandan, N. D., laborer, hospital 
corps, June 22, 1898. 

Dead 

Alfred H. Whittaker, Sergt., died of dysentery at Manila, P. L, April 13, 
1899 ; Adolph Koplen, drowned in Pasig River, P. L, March 28, 1899. 

Wounded 
Frank E. Berg, wounded in left leg, block house No. 13, August 13, 1898. 

For Valiant Service 

Michael Glassley, recommended for medal of honor for valiant service; 
Richard M. Longfellow, recommended for two medals of honor for valiant 
service. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 579 

COMPANY B — FIRST BATTALION 

Edw. C. Geary, Jr., clerk, Fargo, N. D. ; Joseph A. Slattery, ist Lieut., 
student, Wahpeton, N. D. ; Robert A. Thompson, 2d Lieut., bookkeeper, Fargo, 
N. D. ; Ernest D. Palmer, ist Sergt., clerk, Fargo, N. D. ; Ralph E. Bradley, 
Q. M., clerk, Fargo, N. D. ; Harold Sorenson, clerk, Fargo, N. D. ; William R. 
Edwards, Sergt., reporter, Fargo, N. D. ; Martin J. Hummel, druggist, Fargo, 
N. D.; Matthias E. Thompson, clerk, Fargo, N. D. ; Daniel S. Lewis, clerk, 
Fargo, N. D. ; Albert M. Hathaway, druggist, Fargo, N. D. ; Fred E. Hausche, 
Corp., clerk, Fargo, N. D. ; William C. Allen, laborer, Manistee, Mich.; James 
L. Miller, bookbinder, Fargo, N. D. ; John P. Martin, Corp., stenographer, Fargo, 
N. D. ; John W. Gearey, Mus., student, Fargo, N. D. ; Otto M. Luther, Mus., 
clerk, Fargo, N. D. ; Joseph A. Schlauser, artificer, carpenter, Fargo, N. D. ; 
Ralph D. McCully, cook, Fargo, N. D. 

Privates 

Lewis Anderson, laborer, Fargo, N. D. ; Ed. M. Anderson, student, Wal- 
halla, N. D. ; Frank D. Bowland, laborer, Shenandoah, Iowa; Burdette Cleary, 
printer, Spokane, Wash. ; Jeremiah Cleary, student, Cavalier, N. D. ; Harry F. 
B. Cook, laborer, Fargo, N. D. ; Lemuel E. Crooker, laborer, Ortonville, Minn. ; 
Jesse A. Davis,, clerk, Fargo, N. D. ; James Doyle, railroadman, Honolulu, H. I. ; 
E. H. Elwin, teacher, Fargo, N. D. ; Herman F. C. Fick, salesman, Harlen, 
N. D. ; G. Angus Eraser, bookkeeper, Fargo, N. D. ; George E. Gilligan, laborer, 
Argusville, N. D. ; George W. Gregory, laborer, Cornell, 111. ; Richard C. Hand, 
laborer, Baltimore, Md. ; Charles A. Hannan, farmer, Fargo, N. D. ; Frank E. 
Hughes, clerk, Cresco, Iowa ; Charles Hughes, student, .Steele, N. D. ; John Jep- 
son, laborer, Montevideo, Minn. ; Christian E. Johnson, farmer. Kindred, N. D. ; 
John B. Kinne, student, Fargo, N. D. ; Robert Langford, laborer, Fargo, N. D. ; 
Robert S. Lewis, farmer, Fargo, N. D.; Oscar F. Miller, laborer, Fargo, N. D. ; 
John Z. McAulifife, clerk, Fargo, N. D. ; Edw. McBain, farmer, Fargo, N. D. ; 
James McGuigan, student, Fargo, N. D. ; Michael Nelson, laborer, Hatton, 
N. D. ; Frank L. Newman, student, Fargo, N. D. ; Charles I. Nord, jeweler, 
Fargo, N. D. ; John A. Norman, clerk, Fargo, N. D. ; Abraham J. Olsen, clerk, 
Fargo, N. D. ; Irving A. Palmer, printer, Fargo, N. D. ; Ole W. Pearson, harness- 
maker, Fargo, N. D. ; Edw. S. Peterson, stenographer, Fargo, N. D. ; Ray Ras- 
mussen, student, Fargo, N. D. ; F. A. Regan, bookkeeper, Fargo, N. D. ; Gus J. 
Rehan, farmer, Moorhead, Minn. ; Leo J. Ryan, teacher, Fargo, N. D. ; Eugene 
Saket, draughtsman, Fargo, N. D. ; Fred G. Sell, student, Fargo, N. D. ; Alfred 
Sherman, laborer, Fargo, N. D. ; Harry S. Shurlock, student, Fargo, N. D. ; 
Adolph E. Simensen, laborer, Moorhead, Minn. ; Lars Solberg, laborer, Daven- 
port, N. D. ; George W. Spradling, soldier, Fargo, N. D. ; Lewis Starman, butcher, 
Fargo, N. D. ; Harry Turner, laborer, Fargo, N. D. ; John Waarteson, laborer, 
Fargo. N. D. ; Albert B. Wood, stenographer, Fargo, N. D, 

Discharged 

M. A. Hildreth, ist Lieut., Fargo, N. D., lawyer, resigned, July 28, 1899; Frank 
Frederik Keye, Capt., Fargo, N. D., engineer, disability, January 29, 1899; 



580 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

L. Anders, Corp., Fargo, N. D., machinist, by orders, September 9, 1899; Melvin 
C. Henry, cook, Fargo, N. D., student, by orders, September 9, 1899; Wm. S. 
Morrison, wagoner, Fargo, N. D., teamster, by orders, June 28, 1898; Elof Beck, 
Fargo, N. D., blacksmith, by orders, July 28, 1899; Herbert N. Brown, Fargo, 
N. D., student, disability. May 22, 1899; Harry R. Cramer, Lisbon, N. D., engi- 
neer, disability, April 3, 1899; Albert A. Ellsworth, Fargo, N. D., cook, by 
orders, July 28, 1899 (36th U. S. V.) ; Frank W. Lee, Manila, P. L, fireman, by 
orders, July 9, 1899, reenlisted; John A. McCannel, Fargo, N. D., plumber, 
disability, December 5, 1898 (in 36th U. S. V.) ; James W. Mclntyre, Manila, 
P. L, waiter, by orders, July 9, 1899, reenlisted ; George Walker, Fargo, N. D., 
teamster, by orders, July 21, 1899; Harry E. Zimmermann, Fargo, N. D., painter, 
disability, April 17, 1899. 

Transferred 

Fred L. Conklin, 1st Lieut., Jamestown, N. D., clerk. Company H, October 
22, 1898; John Russater, ist Sergt., Fargo, N. D., clerk, Company I, July 14, 
1899; C. S. Foster, Q. M. Sergt., Fargo, N. D., clerk, 9th U. S. Inf., April 28, 
1899; Gilbert C. Grafton, Corp., Fargo, N. D., mail carrier, Regt. Sergt., Maj., 
February 24, 1899; Henry R. Berry, Fargo, N. D., painter, chief trumpeter, 
May 25, 1898; Howard B. Huntley, Fargo, N. D., student, hospital corps, June 
21, 1898; Gail P. Shepard, Fargo, N. D., student, hospital corps, June 21, 1898. 

Dead 
Joseph Wurzer, died at San Francisco of consumption, September 7, 1899. 

Wounded 
Fred E. Hausche, wounded in right lung near Novaliches, P. L, April 22, 1899. 

For Valiant Service 

Frank L. Anders, Corp., recommended for medal of honor for valiant serv- 
ice; John B. Kinne, recommended for medal of honor for valiant service; James 
Mclntyre, recommended for medal of honor for valiant service. 

COMPANY C SECOND BATTALION 

John H. Johnson, deputy county treasurer, Grafton, N. D. ; Cornelius J. 
Foley, railroadman. Grafton, N. D. ; Thomas H. Thoralson, 2d Lieut., real estate, 
Grafton, N. D. ; John M. McLean, ist Sergt., laborer, Grafton, N. D. ; Ralph 
Crowl, Q. M. Sergt., printer, Grafton, N. D. ; Ole Manderud, Sergt., miller, 
Grafton, N. D. ; Charles C. Cairncross, merchant, Grafton, N. D. ; Christ Ehri, 
Sergt., laborer, Grafton, N. D. ; Thomas A. Swiggum, Sergt., clerk, Grafton, 
N. D. ; Nels J. Nelson, Corp., laborer, Grafton, N. D. ; Gert Heggen, Corp., 
laborer, Grafton, N. D. ; George H. Kerr, Corp., laborer, Grafton, N. D. ; Henry 
H. Junkins, Corp., carpenter, Drayton, N. D. ; Sylvester Lowe, Corp., student. 
Forest River, N. D. ; Bernard Roener, Corp., laborer, Grafton, N. D. ; Andrew 
S. Ouist, Mus., clerk, Grafton, N. D. ; Joseph Z. Venne, Mus., insurance agent, 
Bathgate, N. D. ; Thomas R. Cook, artificer, engineer, Grafton, N. D. ; Thomas 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 581 

Sletteland, wagoner, laborer, Grafton, N. D. ; Thomas Pettinger, cook, laborer, 
Grafton, N. D. 

Privates 

Samuel Arthur, teacher, Minto, N. D. ; Albert Barrows, laborer, St. Andrews, 
N. D.; Henry Barnard, carpenter, Grafton, N. D. ; Percy D. Ball, laborer, Delano, 
Minn. ; Thomas J. Bleckeberg, farmer, Grafton, N. D. ; Joseph Bleskheck, farmer, 
Grafton, N. D. ; Ole O. Berg, laborer, Grafton, N. D. ; Alfred B. Collette, clerk, 
Grafton, N. D. ; Joseph A. Cook, clerk, Minto, N. D. ; Austin O. De Frate, clerk, 
Alexandria, Minn.; George Durban, decorator, Bemidji, Minn.; Walter D. 
Ebbighausen, clerk, Grafton, N. D. ; Arthur G. Elston, laborer, Grafton, N. D. ; 
Wilbrod Faille, laborer, Grafton, N. D. ; John Gaut, liveryman, Grafton, N. D. ; 
Robert Givens, farmer, Grafton, N. D. ; John J. Green, liveryman, Forest Rivet, 
N. D. ; Charles J. Hanson, farmer, Nash, N. D. ; Charles Hein, laborer, Grafton, 
N. D. ; Gustav C. Hinueber, laborer, Grafton, N. D. ; David B. Ingersoll, team- 
ster, Grafton, N. D. ; Eddie Johnson, laborer, Grafton, N. D. ; P>ed Johnson, 
farmer, Grafton, N. D. ; Oscar Johnson, laborer, Grafton, N. D. ; Garrett Keefe, 
farmer, Grafton, N. D. ; William T. Kerr, lather, Grafton, N. D. ; Joseph A. 
Lobsinger, printer, Grafton, N. D. ; Peter Lundstedt, laborer, Grafton, N. D. ; 
Martin Mohn, laborer, Grafton, N. D. ; Lorin C. Nelson, teacher, Grafton, N. D. ; 
Oscar E. Parkins, clerk. Auburn, N. D. ; Edward E. Prentice, student, Grafton, 
N. D. ; Simeon G. Quist, printer, Grafton, N. D. ; August P. Rash, farmer, 
Grafton, N. D. ; Martin A. Rosen, shoemaker, Grafton, N. D. ; Axel E. Romm, 
laborer, Grafton, N. D. ; Fred W. Ridgway, farmer, Medford, N. D. ; Asa Schell, 
clerk, Portland, Ind. ; Ernest Stuart, laborer, Grafton, N. D. ; Levin E. Thomp- 
son, laborer, Grafton, N. D. ; John H. Thompson, cook, Grafton, N. D. ; Andrew 
H. Tweeten, farmer, Grafton, N. D. ; William R. Truelock, laborer, Grafton, 
N. D. ; Forest D. Warren, farmer. Forest River, N. D. ; Charles J. Weagant, 
farmer, Grafton, N. D. ; Charles H. Wentz, printer, Grafton, N. D. ; Harry T. 
Young, printer, Eagle Bend, Minn. 

Discharged 

Leif Swennumson, Park River, N. D., clerk, by orders, April 21, 1899; 
Oswald D. Foley, Grafton, N. D., teacher, by orders, August 16, 1899; Samuel 
T. Olson, Sergt., Grafton, N. D., engineer, by orders, January 22, 1899; Alex T. 
McKinnon, Sergt., San Francisco, Cal., clerk, by orders, August 25, 1899; 
Edward J. Husband, Manila, P. L, farmer, by orders, July 29, 1899; William 
Longsine, Manila, P. L, laborer, by orders, July 29, 1899; Nathan Myhere, 
Drayton, N. D., carpenter, by orders, August 25, 1899; Hans Pederson, Auburn, 
N. D., blacksmith, by orders, April 21, 1899. 

Transferred 

Donald Mclntyre, Grafton, N. D., druggist, hospital corps, June 21, 1898; 
Harris Shumway, Lambert, Minn., civil engineer, hospital corps, June 16, 1899. 

Dead 

John Buckley, killed at Fort Malate, August 16, 1898; Frank Upton, died 
at Manila, P. L, of dysentery, March i, 1899; Isidore Driscoll, Corp., killed in 



582 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

action at Paete, P. I., April 12, 1899; P. W. Tompkins, wagoner, killed in action 
at Paete, P. I., April 12, 1899; Alfred C. Almen, killed in action at Paete, P. I., 
April 12, 1899; Wm. G. Lamb, killed in action at Paete, P. L, April 12, 1899. 

IVounded 
Wm. R. Truelock, wounded in left knee at San Ildefonso, P. L, May 12, 1899. 

For Valiant Service 

Thos. Sletteland, wagoner, recommended for medal of honor for valiant 
service. 

, COMPANY D SECOND BATTALION 

Adelbert W. Cogswell, Capt., druggist. Devils Lake, N. D. ; Thomas Lon- 
nevik, ist Lieut., teacher. Devils Lake, N. D. ; William A. Mickle, 2d Lieut., 
hotelman, Grafton, N. D. ; Robert E. Taylor, ist Sergt., farmer, Devils Lake, 
N. D.; George T. Salter, Q. M. Sergt., clerk, Crary, N. D.; Warren White, 
Sergt., carpenter, Devils Lake, N. D. ; Joseph H. Parsons, Sergt., fireman, Devils 
Lake, N. D. ; Albert P. Babin, Sergt., clerk, Towner, N. D. ; John G. Thompson, 
Sergt., clerk. Devils Lake, N. D. ; Will F. Logan, Corp., blacksmith. Devils Lake, 
N. D. ; Maurice O. Robse, Corp., cook. Devils Lake, N. D. ; Robert T. Elsberry, 
Corp., farmer. Devils Lake, N. D. ; Robert J. Wilson, Corp., farmer, Devils 
Lake, N. D. ; Stonewall Atkinson, Jr., Corp., farmer, Cando, N. D. ; Nels. H. 
Peterson, Corp., clerk. Devils Lake, N. D. ; Charles J. B. Turner, clerk. Devils 
Lake, N. D. ; Frederick J. Gannon, laborer, Devils Lake, N. D. ; Luther H. 
Bratton, Mus., printer, Rugby, N. D. ; Fred Becker, artificer, laborer. Devils 
Lake, N. D. ; Christopher C. Kinsey, wagoner, carpenter. Devils Lake, N. D. 

Privates 

Charles Anderson, laborer. Devils Lake, N. D. ; Edw. Ellwardt, laborer. 
Devils Lake, N. D. ; Bert Albin, glassblower, Crary, N. D. ; Patrick F. Arm- 
strong, butcher. Devils Lake, N. D. ; David E. Beauchamp, waiter. Devils Lake, 
N. D. ; Charles E. Brown, farmer, Bottineau, N. D. ; Robert O. Burgess, printer. 
Devils Lake, N. D. ; Bert M. Bartlett, railroadman. Devils Lake, N. D. ; Windsor 
L. Boyce, farmer, Fargo, N. D. ; Robert R. Donaldson, horseman, Devils Lake, 
N. D. ; George W. Dragoo, carpenter, Hasel, Ind. ; Arthur C. Dumochel, clerk. 
Devils Lake, N. D. ; William J. Elliott, plasterer, SaHneville, Ohio ; Frank E. 
Elliott, student, Devils Lake, N. D. ; Fred Eymann, farmer, Rugby, N. D. ; Albert 
C. Erickson, laborer, San Francisco, Cal. ; Lawrence J. Greene, laborer. Grand 
Harbor, N. D. ; Hastings H. Hamilton, law student. Grand Forks, N. D. ; William 
Huseby, mason, Devils Lake, N. D. ; Thomas Hurley, laborer, Devils Lake, N. D. ; 
George L. Jenks, clerk, Devils Lake, N. D. ; Alfred P. Jones, baker, Montreal, 
Canada ; Orval O. Judd, farmer, Devils Lake, N. D. ; George A. Kellogg, farmer, 
Leesburg, Ind. ; Zeno Le Due. farmer, Crary, N. D. ; Harry A. Lindsmith, 
farmer, Owatonna, Minn. ; Orlow B. Maybee, laborer. Devils Lake, N. D. ; 
Charles R. McGraw, laborer, Grand Forks, N. D. ; Elijah Morgan, painter. Grand 
Forks, N. D. ; John C. Millar, laborer. Devils Lake, N. D. ; William R. Olmstead, 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 583 

blacksmith, Toledo, Ohio; Andrew Prinzing, farmer. Devils Lake, N. D. ; Perry 
H. Purdy, teamster. Devils Lake, N. D. ; Lloyd Ryall, teacher, Michigan City, 
N. D. ; Clayton J. Scott, laborer, Devils Lake, N. D. ; Peter G. Timboe, clerk. 
Grand Harbor, N. D. ; Delbert N. Tanner, laborer. Devils Lake, N. D. ; John H. 
Travis, farmer, Bottineau, N. D. ; George Trace, laborer, Devils Lake, N. D. ; 
Tor. Torsen, carpenter, Grand Harbor, N. D. ; Albert Tromp, farmer, Shovvano, 
N. D.; Roy N. Whitney, fireman. Devils Lake, N. D.; William H. Wilson, 
farmer, Bottineau, N. D. ; Clarence E. Wilson, farmer, Bottineau, N. D. ; Martin 
Wagness, laborer. Devils Lake, N. D. ; John L Wampler, farmer. Devils Lake, 
N. D. ; Albert M. Young, printer, Towner, N. D. 

Discharged 

Henry Redmond, 1st Lieut., Devils Lake, N. D., machinist, resigned, March 
i8, 1899; Phil H. Snortt, ist Sergt., Devils Lake, N. D., publisher, by orders, 
July 29, 1899; Charles H. Eager, Sergt., Manila, P. L, painter, by orders, July 
29, 1899; Alfred E. Scott, Corp., Devils Lake, N. D., laborer, by orders, July 29, 
1899; W. J. Prendergast, Corp., Crary, N. D., farmer, by orders. May 21, 1899 
(in 36th U. S. V.) ; Wesley M. Baneford, Manila, P. L, painter, by orders, July 
14, 1899, reenlisted; Ambrose M. Healey, Manila, P. L, laborer, by orders, July 
29, 1899; James Hathaway, Devils Lake, N. D., cowboy, by orders, August i, 
1899; Frank D. Hoadley, Grand Harbor, N. D., farmer, by orders, July 3, 1899 
(in 36th U. S. V.) ; Godfried Jensen, Manila, P. L, farmer, by orders, July 19, 
1899, reenlisted ; Fred Longdue, Devils Lake, N. D., teamster, by orders, August 
I, 1899 (in 34th U. S. V.) ; Philip J. O'Neill, Jackson, Cal, miner, by orders, 
July 19, 1899, reenlisted; John Swanson, Manila, P. L, laborer, by orders, July 
21, 1899; Henry Nannier, Devils Lake, N. D., cook, by orders, September 7, 
1899; Hugo Zuillig, Devils Lake, N. D., farmer, by orders, Jvme 16, 1899. 

Transferred 

Fred E. Smith, Q. M. Sergt., Bartlett, N. D., clerk. Company K; R. W. 
Anderson, Crary, N. D., butcher, hospital corps ; Guy R. Wheaton, Lowell, 
Mich., fireman, hospital corps, June 21, 1898. 

Dead 
John C. Byron, Corp., died of wound, May 24, 1899. 

Wounded 
Elijah Morgan, wounded April i, 1899. 

For Valiant Service 

Godfried Jensen, recommended for medal of honor for valiant service at 
burning bridge over Tabou River, May 16, 1899. 

COMPANY G FIRST BATTALION 

Ingvald A. Berg, Capt., banker. Grand Forks, N. D. ; W. H. Pray, ist Lieut, 
farmer. Valley City, N. D. ; O. Thomas Mattison, 2d Lieut., painter, Jamestown, 



584 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

N. D. ; Frank S. Henry, ist Sergt., druggist, Valley City, N. D. ; David W. Bailey, 
Q. M. Sergt., carpenter, Valley City, N. D. ; William H. Lock, Q. M. Sergt., 
potter, Valley City, N. D. ; Charles W. Nelson, Q. M. Sergt., farmer, Valley City, 
N. D. ; Ross G. Wills, Q. M. Sergt., musician. Valley City, N. D. ; Delbert Cross, 
Corp., fanner, Valley City, N. D. ; E. Ray Fairbanks, Corp., farmer. Valley City, 
N. D.; Fred C. King, Corp., farmer. Valley City, N. D. ; August C. Huhn, Corp., 
operator. Valley City, N. D. ; Ernest G. Wanner, Corp., real estate agent. Valley 
City, N. D. ; Charles P. Davis, Corp., cook, Valley City, N. D. ; Louis P. Clark, 
Mus., student. Valley City, N. D. ; Frank T. Sikes, Mus., storekeeper. Valley City, 
N. D. ; Neal Christianson, artificer, barber. Valley City, N. D. ; Alonzo B. Ellis, 
wagoner, farmer, Valley City, N. D. ; George H. Shannon, cook, cook, San Fran- 
cisco, Cal. 

Privates 

William N. Allen, electrician. Valley City, N. D. ; Oscar W. Amundson, 
student. Valley City, N. D. ; Charles M. Amo, laborer, Minneapolis, Minn. ; 
Arthur L. Barton, farmer, Valley City, N. D. ; Elof Benson, tailor, Valley City, 
N. D. ; Andrew Bertramsen, printer, Albert Lea, Minn. ; Herbert E. Chapman, 
farmer. Tower City, N. D. ; Thomas T. Chave, bookkeeper, San Francisco, Cal. ; 
Walter E. Church, farmer, Sanborn, N. D. ; John T. B. Davis, merchant, Valley 
City, N. D. ; Arthur L. Davine, painter, Wyandotte, Mich. ; Arthur Goodwin, 
farmer. Valley City, N. D. ; Theo. S. Henry, student. Valley City, N. D. ; Ferd 
Heusperger, farmer. Valley City, N. D. ; Matthias Hetland, blacksmith. Valley 
City, N. D. ; Richard H. Hitsman, laborer, Valley City, N. D. ; Omunde Jacob- 
son, laborer. Valley City, N. D. ; Charles E. Jaten, student, Valley City, N. D. ; 
Christian A. Kvalness, clerk. Valley City, N. D. ; Henry W. Lawrence, farmer, 
Montgomery, Minn. ; Thomas C. Lillethun, farmer, Fingal, N. D. ; Lawrence H. 
Luttrell, farmer. Valley City, N. D. ; James A. Melrose, cook, Atlanta, 111. ; John 
O. Moe, barber, Sanborn, N. D. ; John Moran, railroadman. Valley City, N. D. ; 
Patrick McEntee, farmer, Montgomery, Minn. ; Henry T. Murphy, student, San- 
born, N. D. ; John W. Murphy, clerk, Sanborn, N. D. ; Anton Nelson, laborer, 
Brookfield, Minn. ; Frank Nestaval, printer, Montgomery, Minn. ; Charles Olstad, 
blacksmith, Valley City, N. D. ; Hans Pederson, teacher. Valley City, N. D. ; 
Roy A. Phillips, farmer. Valley City, N. D. ; Christ F. Pinkert, cook, New Rock- 
ford, N. D.; William F. Priest, student. Valley City, N. D.; George N. Ras- 
mussen, laborer, Valley City, "N. D. ; Sven Risa, farmer, Salida, Colo.; Jerome 
B. Shoemaker, laborer. Tower City, N. D. ; Perry F. Strock, student. Valley 
City, N. D. ; Theo. O. Torbenson, blacksmith, Vining, Minn. ; John B. Totz, fire- 
man. Valley City, N. D. ; Shon H. Warren, printer. Galena, III. ; John A. Welsh, 
clerk. Valley City, N. D. ; Knute Westerheim, farmer, Valley City, N. D. ; Edw. 
Westerland, watchmaker. Valley City, N. D. 

Discharged 

Charles F. Mudgett, Capt., Valley City, N. D., bookkeepr, resigned, June 2, 
1899; Frank H. Walker, Sergt., Valley City, N. D., farmer, disability, April 9, 
1899 (36th U. S. V.) ; William H. Coughlin, Corp., Manila. P. I., clerk, by 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 585 

orders, July 12, 1899, reenlisted; William Greb, Mus., Valley City, N. D., farmer, 
by orders, July 29, 1899 (36th U. S. V.) ; Bert Bertramsen, artificer, Manila, 
P. I., tinner, by orders, July 15, 1899, reenlisted; C. A. Anderson, Valley City, 
N. D., carpenter, by orders, March 13, 1899 (36th U. S. V.) ; William H. Arnold, 
Manila, P. I., teacher, by orders, July 15, 1899, reenlisted; Steve E. Bush, Valley 
City, N. D., student, by orders. May 20, 1899; Eddie Christopherson, Fingal, 
N. D., farmer, by orders, April 26, 1899; Lora E. Conrad, Manila, P. I., laborer, 
by orders, July 30, 1899; William M. Greenwood, Manila, P. I., engineer, by 
orders, July 16, 1899; Sterling A. Gait, Manila, P. I., printer, by orders, July 13, 
1899; Francis D. Hutchison, Manila, P. I., laborer, by orders, July 30, 1899; 
David A. Jones, Clark City, N. D., farmer, by orders, April 26, 1899; Albert E. 
McKay, Valley City, N. D., student, by orders, August 15, 1899; Albinos 
McDonald, Valley City, N. D., farmer, by orders, August 31, 1899; Matthias 
Pederson, Valley City, N. D., blacksmith, disability, March 7, 1899; Ole G. 
Sandstad. Kenyon, Minn., student, by orders, August 9, 1899. 

Transferred 

C. W. Getchell, ist Lieut., Valley City, N. D., bookkeeper, regimental Q. M. ; 
Joseph A. Slattery, ist Lieut., Wahpeton, N. D., student. Company B; Ernest E. 
Hlis, Sergt., Valley City, N. D., clerk, Sergt. Maj. Bat., July 9, 1899; Winfield 
H. Coleman, Art., electrician, hospital corps, September 27, 1898; William B. 
Fleming, Valley City, N. D., nurse, hospital corps ; Thomas F. McLaren, San- 
born, N. D., clerk, hospital corps; C. L. \'allandigham. Valley City, N. D., 
printer, Reg. Q. M. Sergt., July 10, 1899. 

Dead 

John A. Ewing, died of fever at Manila, P. L, March 2, 1899. 

Wounded 

Charles Olstad, wounded at Titabau in right leg May i, 1899; William H. 
Locke, Sergt., wounded by accident in right foot, February 2, 1899. 

For Valiant Service 

Charles P. Davis, Corp., recommended for medal of honor for valiant service ; 
Sterling A. Gait, Priv., recommended for medal of honor for valiant service. 

COMPANY H FIRST BATTALION 

Porter W. Eddy, Capt., farmer, Jamestown, N. D. ; Harrison J. Gruschius, 
1st Lieut., lumberman, Dickinson, N. D. ; Dorman Baldwin, Jr., 2d Lieut., clerk, 
Jamestown, N. D. ; John C. Eddy, 1st Sergt., clerk, Jamestown, N. D. ; William 
M. Hotchkiss, O. M. Sergt., contractor, Jamestown, N. D. ; William Gleason, 
Jr., Sergt., tailor, Jamestown. N. D. ; David E. Bigelow, Sergt., clerk, James- 
town, N. D. ; Larry B. McLain, Sergt., clerk, Jamestown, N. D. ; John E. 



586 ■ EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

McElroy, Sergt., clerk, Jamestown, N. D. ; James Hanson, Corp., railroadman, 
Jamestown, N. D. ; Herman P. Wolf, Corp., clerk, Jamestown, N. D. ; Fred T. 
Braatrup, Corp., brakeman, Jamestown, N. D. ; Albert F. Collins, Corp., farmer, 
Eldridge, N. D. ; Lawrence A. Williams, Corp., farmer, Jamestown, N. D. ; 
John P. Sonnen, Corp., butcher, Casselton, N. D. ; Frederick D. Cunningham, 
cook, student. Grand Rapids, N. D. ; John J. Chamberlin, Mus., farmer, Oakes, 
N. D. ; Ira O. Bleecher, Mus., engineer. Kindred, N. D. ; Howard E. Fell, 
artificer, carpenter, Jamestown, N. D. ; Willis H. Downes, wagoner, farmer, 
Jamestown, N. D. 

Privates 

Albert F. Abraham, farmer. Princeton, Minn. ; Herman Abraham, laborer, 
Princeton, Minn. ; Severt B. Berglund, carpenter, Fargo, N. D. ; Arthur Bennett, 
carpenter, Jamestown, N. D. ; Joseph Boyer, laborer, Aurora, 111. ; Burnie Briggs, 
photographer, Jamestown, N. D. ; Ralph E. Callahan, clerk, Norfolk, Neb. ; John 
C. Charles, merchant, Tower City, N. D. ; Robert M. Charles, engineer, Tower 
City, N. D. ; Charles Cooper, farmer, Jamestown, N. D. ; Alexander Clubb, 
farmer, Jamestown, N. D. ; John H. Cadieux, switchman, Oakland, Cal. ; Wood- 
bury J. Davis, fireman, Jamestown, N. D. ; Ralph A. Froenike, student, James- 
town, N. D. ; Frank M. Glenn, farmer, New Rockford, N. D. ; Frank R. Graham, 
laborer, New Rockford, N. D. ; Charles Horsman, cook, Wichita, Kan. ; Ernest 
E. Haner, laborer, Jamestown, N. D. ; Arthur Hughes, laborer, New Rockford, 
N. D. ; John L. Johnson, laborer, Crystal Springs, N. D. ; Edward E. Kurtz, 
clerk, Jamestown, N. D. ; Thomas Maher, laborer, Jamestown, N. D. ; Morris R. 
Mastin, engineer, Jamestown, N. D. ; Bunard J. ]\Ieehan, switchman, Jamestown, 
N. D. ; James McElwaine, cook, Jamestown, N. D. ; Louis C. Oefstedahl, farmer, 
Cheyenne, N. D. ; Edward E. Pope, cook, Jamestown, N. D. ; David Phillips, Jr., 
plowmaker, Racine, Wis. ; Edwin J. Paunell, farmer, Jamestown, N. D. ; Edward 
M. Portz, laborer, Jamestown, N. D. ; Grant E. Riley, carpenter, Saginaw, Mich. ; 
Harry F. Roberts, machinist, Jamestown, N. D. ; John M. Reed, engineer, James- 
town, N. D. ; Frank F. Ross, machinist, Langdon, N. D. ; William P. Severin, 
laborer, Jamestown, N. D. ; John E. Smith, carpenter, Jamestown, N. D. ; Harry 
J. Stoops, clerk, Jamestown, N. D. ; John Thompson, engineer, Jamestown, N. D. ; 
Arthur Tyte, miner, Jamestown, N. D. ; James M. Williams, engineer, Carring- 
ton, N. D. ; Harry E. W'illiams, railroadman, Jamestown, N. D. ; Fred W. Wolf, 
clerk, Jamestown, N. D. ; Dana M. Wright, farmer, Jamestown, N. D. ; Perle F. 
Wright, flour packer, Jamestown, N. D. ; Lloyd A. Whiteman, farmer. New 
Rockford, N. D. 

Discharged 

Fred L. Conklin, ist Lieut.. Bismarck, N. D., clerk, disability, December 12, 
1898; Daniel H. Wallace, Corp., Bismarck, N. D., student, disability, December 
7, 1898; William H. Miller, Corp., Manila. P. I., farmer, by orders, July 13, 
1899, reenlisted 36th U. S. V.; Delbert Buzzell, Mus., Jamestown, N. D., printer, 
disability, March 10, 1899; George K. Brown, wagoner. Manila, P. I., teamster, 
by orders. July 24, 1899, reenlisted 36th U. S. Y.; Thomas A. Green, James- 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 587 

town, N. D., laborer, disability, March lo, 1899; James Hamilton, Manila, P. I., 
clerk, by orders, July 13, 1899, reenlisted 36th U. S. V. ; Clarence J. Allen, Turen, 
N. Y. teacher, disability, March 10, 1899; Lewis Kramer, Manila, P. L, boiler- 
maker, by orders, July 24, 1899, reenlisted 36th U. S. V. ; Benjamin K. Russell, 
Corp., Manila, P. L, student, by orders, July 28, 1899; Charles Peterson, Manila, 
P. L, laborer, by orders, July 24, 1899, reenlisted 36th U. S. V. ; Robert E. 
Mauly, Sergt., Manila, P. L, lawyer, by orders, July 28, 1899; August Shinke, 
Manila, P. L, laborer, by orders, July 24, 1899, reenlisted 36th U. S. V. 

Transferred 

Herbert G. Proctor, ist Lieut., Jamestown, N. D., clerk. Company B, October 
22, 1898; Olin T. Mattison, ist Sergt., Jamestown, N. D., printer. Company G, 
July 30, 1899; John E. Mattison, Sergt., Jamestown, N. D., clerk, Reg. Sergt.- 
Maj., May 23, 1899; Harry W. Donevan, Princeton, Minn., clerk, Reg. Hosp. 
steward, September i, 1899; Ernest E. Kelly, Carrington, N. D., Tele, operator, 
signal corps, June 16, 1899; Christ F. Pinkert, Valley City, N. D.. watchmaker. 
Company G, December 10, 1899; Hazelton D. Smith, Jamestown, N. D., laborer, 
hospital corps, June 22, 1898. 

Dead 

John H. Killian, killed in action near Morong, P. L, June 9, 1899; Frank ^L 
Harden, died of dysentery at Manila, P. L, November 21, 1898; John Morgan, 
died of dysentery at Manila, P. L, October 26, 1898. 

Wounded 

Dorman Baldwin, Jr., 2d Lieut., wounded in right leg at Kings Blufif, P. L, 
April I, 1899; James Hanson, Corp., wounded in left wrist at Morong, P. L, 
June 15, 1899; Herman P. Wolf, Corp., wounded in right foot at Kings Bluff, 
P. L, April II, 1899; Harry W. Donovan, wounded in left arm at Polo, P. L, 
March 26, 1899; Edward J. Pannell, wounded in left side at Paete, P. L, April 
12, 1899. 

COMPANY I — SECOND BATTALION 

William R. Purdon, Capt., merchant, Wphpeton, N. D. ; William B. Aspin- 
wall, 1st Lieut., printer, Wahpeton, N. D. ; John Pussater, 2d Lieut., clerk, Fargo, 
N. D. ; Arthur E. McKean, ist Sergt., clerk, Wahpeton, N. D. ; William D. Pur- 
don, Q. M. Sergt, clerk, Wahpeton, N. D. ; Charles W. Lander, Sergt., student, 
Wahpeton, N. D. ; Orlin M. Jones, Sergt., student, Rochester, Minn. ; Mark L 
Forkner, Sergt., printer, Wahpeton, N. D. ; Walter O. Lippitt, Sergt., student, 
Wahpeton, N. D. ; William H. Auman, Jr., Corp., fireman, Breckenridge, Minn.; 
Herbert J. Brand, Corp.. student, Farmington, N. D. ; Harry R. Kramer, Corp., 
student, Wahpeton, N. D. ; Fred W. Whitcomb, Corp., fireman, Breckenridge, 
Minn. ; James E. Griffin, Corp.. farmer, San Francisco, Cal. ; Nels J. Bothne, 
Corp., farmer, Abercrombie, N. D. ; Fergus A. Mullen, artificer, carpenter. Camp- 



588 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

bell, Minn.; Louis E. Anderson, wagoner, farmer, Clitheral, N. D. ; Emil J. 
Pepke, cook, cook, Grafton, N. D. 

Privates 

Charles J. Adams, farmer, Wahpeton, N. D. ; Charles H. Anderson, farmer, 
Wheaton, Minn. ; Jacob Anfinson, laborer, Wahpeton, N. D. ; Felix Blanchett, 
cook, St. Paul, Minn. ; Otto Boehler, farmer, Wahpeton, N. D. ; Canute Brandrup, 
farmer, Breckenridge, Minn. ; William H. Brose, farmer, Abercrombie, N. D. ; 
James E. Carney, fireman, East Springfield, Pa. ; Frank A. Connolly, farmer, 
Wahpeton, N. D. ; Fred J. Debbert, farmer, Belle Plaine, Minn. ; John J. Gabriel, 
blacksmith, Wahpeton, N. D. ; George Gebro, brakeman, Wahpeton, N. D. ; Peter 
O. Gunness, student, Abercrombie, N. D. ; Fred G. Harbourn, farmer, Shepard, 
111. ; Benjamin Holter, laborer, Moreton, N. D. ; Thomas Hudec, farmer, San 
Francisco, Cal. ; Bernard Klein, barber, Northfield, Minn. ; Berg Linderson, 
farmer, Wahpeton, N. D. ; Olaf Leaf, bricklayer, Wahpeton, N. D. ; Clarence A. 
Mitchell, merchant, Wlahpeton, N. D. ; William J. Mulled, laborer, Campbell, 
Minn. ; James Murphy, laborer, Wahpeton, N. D. ; Henry P. Musf eldt, laborer, 
Wahpeton, N. D. ; James D. Murphy, butcher, Wahpeton, N. D. ; Thomas Man- 
gan, laborer, Chicago, 111. ; Edward McCullough, hotelkeeper, Minneapolis, Minn. ; 
Anton Nelson, horseman, Fargo, N. D. ; John P. Olson, druggist, Wahpeton, 
N. D. ; Oscar J. Olson, clerk, San Francisco, Cal. ; Alpheus H. Palmer, laborer, 
San Francisco, Cal. ; Otto Paulson, laundryman, Wahpeton, N. D. ; James Pruitt, 
farmer. Wahpeton, N. D. ; James M. Quinn, farmer. Browns Valley, Minn. ; 
Julius Schendel, teacher, Campbell, Minn. ; Fred H. Schendel, printer, Campbell, 
Minn. ; Alexander Scott, laborer, Wahpeton, N. D. ; Thomas Stafne, laborer, 
Prairie Farm, Wis. ; Wiill L. Schoonover, engineer, Wahpeton, N. D. ; Otto O. 
Swank, clerk, Wahpeton, N. D. ; George J. Seidlinger, harnessmaker, Brandon, 
Minn. ; Eddie St. John, laborer, Chippewa Falls, Wis. ; Charles Senkle, printer, 
Wahpeton, N. D. ; Gus Sweeney, farmer, Wahpeton, N. D. ; James Snodgrass, 
farmer, W'ahpeton, N. D. ; Thomas Schoot, railroadman, Breckenridge, Minn. ; 
Chesley T. Talley, laborer, Wahpeton, N. D. ; Leslie R. Waterman, shoemaker, 
Wahpeton, N. D. ; Byron Woodberry, student, Wahpeton, N. D. 

Discharged 

John F. Faytle, Sergt., Wahpeton, N. D., teacher, by orders, September i, 
1899; Edward C. Little, Mus., Breckenridge, Minn., well digger, by orders, July 
31, 1899 (36th U. S. V.) ; Frank Trupka, Mus., Manila, P. I., laborer, by orders, 
July 13, 1899, reenlisted; Fred C. Mullen, wagoner, Breckenridge, Minn., fire- 
man, by orders, January 2, 1899; John F. Desmond, Wahpeton, N. D., wood- 
worker, by orders, July 29, 1899; John A. Diamond, Wahpeton, N. D., baker, 
by orders, September i, 1899; Herbert Files, Fergus Falls, Minn., mason, by 
orders, September i, 1899; George E. Flemming, Wahpeton, N. D., laborer, by 
orders, July 29, 1899; Will J. Gillet, Manila, P. I., machinist, by orders, July 29, 
1899, reenlisted 37th U. S. V. ; Herman Harms, Wahpeton, N. D., farmer, by 
orders, July 29, 1899; Peter Happstadius, Wahpeton, N. D.. farmer, by orders, 
July 29, 1899; John C. Leathert, Breckenridge, Minn,, railroadman, by orders, 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 589 

August 17, 1899; Wlalter Schmeltekoff, Manila, P. I., waiter, by orders, July 29, 
1899, reenlisted 14th U. S. If.; Henry J. Ready, Wahpeton, N. D., clerk, by 
orders, September i, 1899; John Souhrada, Manila, P. I., laborer, by orders, July 
29, 1899, reenlisted 36th U. S. V. 

Transferred 

Joseph E. Slattery, 2d Lieut., Wahpeton, N. D., student, Company B, July 
12, 1899; Fred Gellerman, Sergt., Wahpeton, N. D., operator, signal corps, June 
15, 1898; Walter E. Patten, Corp., Wahpeton, N. D., druggist, hospital corps, 
May 16, 1898; Loren Campbell, Corp., Wahpeton, N. D., clerk, hospital corps, 
June 22, 1898; Erie A. Hamilton, Breckenridge, Minn., clerk, hospital corps, 
January 25, 1898. 

Dead 
George J. Schueller, killed in action near Paete, P. I., April 12, 1899. 

Wounded 

Herbert L. Files, wounded in chest at Paete, P. I., April 12, 1899; Emil J. 
Pepke, cook, wounded in chest at Tabac, P. I., April 29, 1899. 

For Valiant Service 
John F. Desmond, recommended for medal of honor for valiant service. 

COMPANY K SECOND BATTALION 

George Auld, Capt., registrar of deeds, Dickinson, N. D. ; Ambrose J. Osborn, 
1st Lieut., photographer, Dickinson, N. D. ; Edw. G. Gorsuch, 2d Lieut., 
machinist, Bismarck, N. D. ; W. Fulton Burnett, ist Sergt., teacher, Dickinson, 
N. D. ; Oscar M. Skeem, Q. M. Sergt., blacksmith, Dickinson, N. D. ; Alfred W. 
Freeman, Sergt., druggist, Dickinson, N. D. ; Samuel Andrews, Sergt., printer, 
Dickinson, N. D. ; Storey E. Auld, Sergt., cowboy, Dickinson, N. D. ; Louis F. 
Hanlin, Sergt., clerk, Dickinson, N. D. ; Chas. H. De Foe, Corp., carpenter, 
Dickinson, N. D. ; Jos. A. Reilly, Corp., farmer, Lehigh, N. D. ; Llewellyn Morse, 
Corp., teamster, Dickinson, N. D. ; Clark H. Coburn, Corp., farmer, Richardton, 
N. D. ; Morton R. Bonney, Corp., farmer, Antelope, N. D. ; Fred Kuntz, Corp., 
farmer, Richardton, N. D. ; Fred C. Anderson, Lance Corp., mechanic, Tracy, 
Minn. ; Hans Kristick, Mus., printer, Dickinson, N. D. ; Willard J. Myers, Mus., 
tanner, Antelope, N. D. ; Nicholas Rothschild, artificer, blacksmith, Dickinson, 
N. D. ; George T. Dollard, wagoner, stockman, Belfield, N. D. ; Charles Hanover, 
cook, carpenter, Mandan, N. D. 

Privates 

Antone Adelman, farmer, Gladstone, N. D. ; Charles D. Butterwick, photog- 
rapher, Milton, N. D. ; Albert L. Boring, farmer, Greenburg, Ind. ; George E. 
Carpenter, cowboy, Middleton, N. Y. ; Ernest B. Cornell, farmer. Gladstone. 
N. D. ; Timothy B. Curtis, laborer, Arlington, Sibley County, Minn. ; Parley R. 



590 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Colburn, farmer, Richardton, N. D. ; John C. Chaloner, liveryman, Dickinson, 
N. D. ; Harry A. Edison, clerk, Bakersfield, Cal. ; Frank A. Earley, farmer, 
Richardton, N. D. ; John Fisher, clerk, Terspol, Emmons County, N. D. ; Peter 
L. Frogner, laborer, Atwater, Minn. ; Edw. E. Gibbs, teamster, Dickinson, N. D. ; 
Claude E. Groff, cowboy, Dickinson, N. D,; Henry Hanson, farmer, Kindred, 
N. D. ; August W. Hensel, farmer, Tappen, N. D. ; William A. Hill, bookkeeper, 
Ea Crosse, Wis. ; William Heiser, porter, Dickinson, N. D. ; Michael Hughes, 
laborer, Dickinson, N. D. ; U. Schyler Hinkel, liveryman, Colon, Mich. ; John E. 
Jones, woodman, Michigan City, N. D. ; John Kuntz, farmer, Dickinson, N. D. ; 
Arthur J. Loomis, cowboy, Antelope, N. D. ; Anthony W. Link, engineer, Glad- 
stone, N. D. ; Adam S. Mischell, storekeeper, Hanover, Kan. ; Patrick Murphy, 
miner, Hancock, Mich. ; Carl A. Madsen, farmer. Hunter, Mich. ; Siegwart Nel- 
son, farmer, Lake Preston, S. D. ; William E. Phillips, laborer, Augusta, Wis. ; 
Hollis Paden, laborer, Dickinson, N- D. ; Frederick J. Rohrer, laborer, San Fran- 
cisco, Cal.; George M. Russell, laborer, Kindred, N. D. ; Paul H. Riech, farmer, 
Middleton, Conn. ; Christopher B. Rice, farmer, Fargo, N. D. ; Clarence E. Stod- 
dard, farmer, Housatonic, Mass. ; Thomas M. Sweeney, miner, Nyhart, Mont. ; 
Herman J. Steriner, Jr., farmer, Winona, Emmons County, N. D. ; Rudolf V. 
Steiner, miller, Fargo, N. D. ; Samuel Smiley, railroadman, Dickinson, N. D. ; 
Gilbert Ulberg, laborer, Hatton, N. D. ; Elmer W. Williams, printer, Chicago, 
111. ; Frank W. Wilson, laborer, Detroit, Mich. 

Discharged 

Hans Garseg, Sergt., Dickinson, N. D., miner, by orders, July 29, 1899; 
Edward L. Ham, Corp., Manila, P. I., wheat buyer, by orders, July 12, 1899, 
reenlisted 36th U. S. V. ; William F. Thomas, Corp., Manila, P. I., acrobat, by 
orders, July 31, 1899, reenlisted; James O. Gorrie, wagoner, Manila, P. I., book- 
keeper, by orders, July 13, 1899, reenlisted; Ticko Bowman, Manila, P. I., 
laborer, by orders, July 14, 1899, reenlisted ; Nathan E. Chase, Dickinson, N. D., 
farmer, by orders, September 2, 1899, reenlisted ; Stephen A. Doherty, Dickin- 
son, N. D., herder, by orders, July 29, 1899, reenlisted; William Fitzgerald, 
Dickinson, N. D., laborer, by orders, August 13, 1899; Raymond GroU, Manila, 
P. I., farmer, by orders, July 13, 1899, reenlisted 36th U. S. V.; James K. Hall, 
Dickinson, N. D., cowboy, disability, December 14, 1898; Patrick Hussey, Manila, 
P. I., laborer, by orders, July 21, 1899, reenlisted 36th U. S. V.; Harry W. 
Klinefelter, Dickinson, N. D., drayman, by orders, August t6, 1899; Joseph Mar- 
monn, Richardton, N. D., farmer, disability, March 7, 1899; Dennis Mahoney, 
Manila, P. I., stone cutter, by orders, July 21, 1899, reenlisted 36th U. S. V.; 
John C. Smith, Manila, P. I., laborer, by orders, July 21, 1899, reenlisted 36th 
U. S. V. ; John J. Smith, Manila, P. I., molder, by orders, July 21, 1899, reenlisted 
36th U. S. v.; Frank Summerfield, Manila, P. I., clerk, by orders, July 13, 1899, 
reenlisted 36th U. S. V.; George G. Vest, Manila, P. I., clerk, by orders. July 13, 
1899, reenlisted 36th U. S. V. 

Transferred 

Harrison J. Gruschius. 2d Lieut., Dickinson, N. D., lumberman. Company H, 
January 8, 1899; Fred E. Smith, 2d Lieut., Manila, P. I., soldier, 36th U. S. V., 



II 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 591 

July 26, 1899; Roy H. Berry, Dickinson, N. D., student, hospital corps, June 21, 
1898; James A. Williams, Dickinson, N. D., cook, hospital corps, June 21, 1898; 
Alfred L. Ledin, Dickinson, N. D., student, hospital corps, January 23, 1899. 

Dead 

Harrold H. Davis, Corp., died at sea on U. S. Transport Grant, August 19, 
1899; Ole T. Lakken, died at Manila, P. I., of pneumonia, November 21, 1898; 
William R. Howell, died at sea of consumption, February 13, 1899. 

Wounded 
August W. Hensel, vi'ounded in leg at Paete, April 12, 1899. 

For Valiant Service 

Patrick Hussey, Frank W. Summerfield, recommended for two medals of 
honor for valiant service, one at burning bridge over Tabon River, May 16, 
1899, and one for bravery at San Miguel, May 13, 1899; William F. Thomas, 
Corp., Thomas M. Sweeney, recommended for medal of honor for valiant 
service at burning bridge over Tabon River, May 16, 1899. 

MUSTER IN ROLL OF FIRST NORTH D..\K0T.1l INFANTRY 

Before Leaving for Service on the Border in 1916 

Field, Staff and Band 

John H. Fraine, colonel; Gilbert C. Grafton, Heutenant colonel; Frank S. 
Henry, major; Dana Wright, major; James M. Hanley, major; Daniel S. Lewis, 
captain, Regt. Coms'y; Theodore S. Henry, captain, Regt. Adjt. ; La Roy Baird, 
1st Lieut., Bv. Adjt.; John W. Murphy, ist Lieut., Bv. Adjt.; Hastings H. 
Hamilton, ist Lieut, Bv. Adjt.; Ivan V. Metzger, 2d Lieut, Bv. Q. M. & C. ; 
John S. Grane, 2d Lieut., Bv. Q. M. & C. ; Warren A. Stickley, R. Sergt. Maj.; 
Joseph L. Dwire, Reg. Coms'y Sergt. ; John W. Rock, §. O. M. Sergt. ; James A. 
Soules, Color Sergt.; Oscar B. Treumann, Bv. Sergt. Maj.; Duane Y. Sarles, 
Bv. Sergt. Maj.; Amos E. Freeman, Bv. Sergt. Maj.; Myron T. Davis, Prin. 
Mus. ; Joseph L. Allison, Drum Maj.; Sergts., Harry S. Moore, Cuthbert S. 
Moore, William M. Jones, Paul D. Harris; Corps., Max M. Moore, Archie 
Galbreath, Minnard Halverson, Fred A. Oliver, Walter E. Jones, James E. Jones ; 
Walter E. Wodrich, cook. Privates : Robert H. Carlson, Glen H. Cole, Delbert 
L. Diehl, Edward H. Gewalt, Harold H. Hannan, Vincent K. Harris, Earl H. 
Hausken, John J. Hegreves, Patrick J. Hennessey, Richard Hockridge, Herbert 
C. Kiff, Edward Layman, Vernon Muir, Earl Nelson, John C. Wagner, Harold 
Webster. 

COMPANY A 

Alfred B. Welch, Capt. ; Fred D. Graham, ist Lieut. ; Warl L. Preston, 2d 
Lieut.; William C. Paulson, ist Sergt.; Donald McPhee, Quartermaster Sergt.; 
Ferris Cordner, Sergt. ; Adolph Scharnowske, Sergt. ; Emil Bressler, Sergt. ; Wil- 
liam Savage, Sergt. ; Charles S. Jones, Sergt. ; Thomas Costello, Corp. ; John 



592 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Maurer, Corp. ; Eugene Morris, Corp. ; George Rasche, Corp. ; Arthur Serres, 
Corp. ; Frank H. Howell, Corp. ; Marion C. Hauser, Corp. 

Privates 

Theodore D. B. Alberghtson, Art. Albrecht, Edward J. Allensworth, Jay 
Anderson, Henry Aniberson, Julius Amberson, Walter Austin, Clarence Bain- 
bridge, Lyman A. Baker, Peter H. Baker, Morris Bergstrom, Herman Brocupp, 
Arthur Brown, Jim Brown, Howard E. Callahan, William N. Carrick, Benedict 
Cloud, Walter Coil, Loyd A. Couch, Harry Cunq, Joe Deibele, Joe P. Delmore, 
Joe Derringer, Martin Derringer, Norman Flow, David R. Fort, Norman Fred- 
rick, Joe Freeburger, David L. Friedmann, Ambrose Gallagher, George Goldader, 
William Haas, John Habeck, Leston Hays, Vinton P. Heaton, Lawrence Hull, 
Ole D. Jensen, Alfred Kasper, Walter Knott, Dennis Laris, Andrew Mathews, 
Leonard Matthews, Ray H. Matthews, John Miley, Carl C. Moore, Thomas B. 
Mousso, George Nelson, Frederick Olson, John H. Ozmond, Alak Petterson, 
Owen Posner, Austin Reed, Arthur Roberts, Ernest Ryti, George Smith, Robert 
B. Sours, Charles Spiro, Walter Stopfer, Arthur Tews, Carl O. Ulness, Henry 
M. Volquardsen, Alex. Whitefeather, Horace E. Williams, William Wise. 

COMPANY B 

Gustav A. M. Anderson, Capt. ; Ernest S. Hill, ist Lieut.; Reginald F. E. 
Colley, 2d Lieut.; Earle W. South, ist Sergt. ; Edward S. Peterson, Q. M. Sergt. ; 
Hjalmer O. Thorson, Sergt. ; Eugene S. Logan, Sergt. ; George F. Ludvigson, 
Sergt. ; Elvin Saul, Sergt. ; Jack D. Thompson, Corp. ; Lewis M. Thune, Corp. ; 
Ernest O. Fjelstad, Corp. ; Carl J. Anderson, Corp. ; Archibald W. Melchior, 
Corp.; Orville A. Bolser, cook; Henry E. Seebold, cook; Bristol F. Gram, 
Jr., musician ; Denzil C. McKinsey, musician. 

Privates 

William L. Abare, Carl E. Anderson, Glennon R. Anderson, George E. Beck- 
strom, Robert H. M. Cahning, Oliver Conn, Ward M. Davenport, Robert F. 
Ellison, Arthur V. Flaten, Chester R. Fouts, Harry Footer, Ray A. Fretz, Ercyl 
B. Hamilton, Roswell J. Hanson, James B. Hardy, Francis G. Heapes, Ralph 
E. HoUister, John G. Hubertz, Joseph E. Johnson, Clarence Kelson, William J. 
Lamb, Gustav F. Lawrence, Ben Lewis, Harry Lewis, Chas. W. B. McDermott, 
Walker McDonough, Donald McGregor, Norman B. McLean, Thomas J. Mc- 
Neese, Harold J. MacCarthy, Harold S. Mayer, Fred A. Miller, Charles W. 
Nelson, Elford Nelson, Aleck J. Nemzek, Jr., John O'Laughlin, George W. Olson, 
Verner Olson, John E. Peterson. Percy M. Pettit, William A. Rasmusson, Henry 
Retzer, Edwin M. Sauer, William Scott, Cecil W. Smith, Leon C. South, Ray 
G. South, John C. Speare, Joseph .Steiner. Leonard T. Sullivan, Fred C. Thomp- 
son, Harry Thompson, Niel Tierney, Ralph Torson, Martin A. Wahlberg, Bud 
Welch. Richard R. Wells. 

COMPANY C 

Manville H. Sprague, Capt.; John G. Ofstedahl, ist Lieut.; William K. 
Treumann, 2d Lieut.; John Brien, ist Sergt.; Henry Moe, Q. M. Sergt.; Myron 



EARLV history of north DAKOTA 593 

Omlie, Sergt. ; Clay Anderson, Sergt. ; John R. Fraine, Sergt. ; Arthur Peder- 
son, Sergt. ; Le Roy E. McGraw, Sergt. ; Grant A. McDonald, Corp. ; John Mohn, 
Corp. ; Elmer Berg, Corp. ; Walter A. Kirkland, cook ; Juel Thor, cook ; Eddie 
Stuart, artificer; Fritz E. Anderson, musician; Ingvar Arman, musician. 

Privates 

Qaude W. Aymond, Roy M. Berrian, Louis E. Bolton, Edward Bouvette, 
Luzerne D. Braudt, William C. Bryce, Adrien Charpentier, Max J. Cheslik, Joe 
Collette, Archie A. Craig, Carl Dahl, Russell E. Davis, Philip Eastman, Lowell 
B. Edin, William Foster, Reuben G. Giles, Joe Givens, George Gjerswold, Magnus 
Gunderson, Carl C. Hankey, Lee R. Hiel, William C. Hogg, Leonard Hoisveen, 
Arthur G. Homme, James J. Horgan, Myrton Hull, Ralph W. Jackson, Joseph 
Johnson, Murray Johnson, William Johnson, Charles H. Kirkland, James N. 
La Fromboise, Fred E. Lakdal, Louis Letourneau, George F. Lewis, Joseph 
McCaman, Allan W. McLean, Earl Maher, James H. Moher, John L. Merchle- 
vicg, John J. Mollers, Mark Mollers, Casmer Monteski, Fred T. Nelson, Stewart 
B. Newell, Henry R. Newgard, George H. Owen, Clayton D. Pannsbaker, Mans- 
field A. Quist, Edward Radke, Fred Radke, Jr., Ragnar Reistadbekken, Fred 
Roth, Wilhelm F. Rude, Austin R. Rye, David H. Smith, Fredrik Smith-Peter- 
son, George P. Swansen, Swan Swansen, Wallace M. Swenson, Dewey Swiggum, 
Gus W. Thompson, Levin Thompson, William G. Tollock, Harry Non Gorres, 
Harry A. Walters, Frank C. Willson. 

COMPANY D 

Frank E. Wheelon, Capt. ; Otto F. Gross, ist Lieut. ; Albert E. Whitney, 2d 
Lieut. ; Stanton A. Hayes, ist Sergt. ; Leonard T. Larson, Q. M. Sergt. ; Percival 
B. T. Robbins, Sergt. ; Carl G. Lautz, Sergt. ; John Leslie, Sergt. ; Leo. S. Kigin, 
Sergt. ; Walter Hall, Sergt. ; Luther S. McGahan, Corp. ; Hugh E. Taylor, Corp. ; 
Frank J. Falvey, Corp. ; Hildor Ellison, Corp. ; Edward Hoffman, Corp. ; Paul 
B. Murphy, Corp. ; William P. Makee, Corp. ; Joseph B. Richards, Corp. ; George 
S. Sawaya, Corp.; Robert S. Stevens, Corp.; Robert Odum, artificer; William 
Marsh, musician; Benjamin D. Fleet, musician. 

Privates 

Simon P. Accola, Thomas T. Adcock, Bert. Albin, Lee Andrews, Melvin A. 
Avelsgaard, Harrison Bailey, John D. Bailey, Charles Baker, Herman E. Bartz, 
Harry Bates, Donald W. Beers, Irl J. Beleal, William Berg, Victor Bergstrom, 
Herman H. Brietzke, Forrest W. Brooks, Arthur J. Brown, Peter A. Brown, 
Joseph M. Buchko, William G. Carroll, Robert E. Casey, Ralph H. Clarke, Elmer 
Clauson, William H. Day, Fay C. DeWitt, Carl J. Dokken, Leslie Dunn, Weston 
J. Du Vail, Arthur M. Eide, Mike Fillip, Alex. Florea, Harry T. Foley, Raymond 
Gilette, Patrick Gilmore, Hans Gimble, Guy D. Givens, Aksel Haase, Olov 
Halsebo, Orville Halsey, John W. Hanson, Joseph Hilts, Paul N. Hofocker, 
Paul D. Howell, Charles H. Jeffries, Roy F. Jewett. Alfred Johnson, George R. 
Johnson, Herman Johnson, Michael Kearns, Ralph H. Kohn, Carl M. Kuhl, 

Vol. 1—38 



594 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

George Lamorie, Harry Laridaen, Charles Larson, Roy LaShelle, Harold L. 
Lloyd, Maxwell Love, Barney J. McCann, Henry J. McClain, Jesse J. McClain, 
John J. McDonald, Clarence J. Madsen, Jacob Matt, Alfred H. Miller, Frank 
Miller, Mike Miller, Vernon C. Miller, Joseph N. Morrow, Clarence Moulton, 
Walter Nichols, Mike Nowak, Oscar Nyberg, William H. Oesch, Fred Pentz, 
Louis Prokoff, John R. Ouackenbush, Allen P. Racine, Harry L. Remington, 
Buel J. Riblett, Leo. Rudd, Harry Schlaberg, Joseph Selberg, Lee E. Smith, Verne 
Soderquist, Fred Strandberg, Smith Taylor, Albert Tiller, Fred Von Duzee, 
George Wartchow, William Waydeman, Bert Wells, Jake Wesa, Ray W. Wilkes, 
Arthur J. Wilson, Asad E. Wilson, Oscar Wold, John T. Zebriskie. 

COMPANY E 

Emery W. Jeffrey, ist Lieut.; William W. Jeffrey, 2d Lieut.; George G. 
Harvey, ist Sergt. ; Otto Wannagat, Q. M. Sergt. ; James L. Thiessen, Sergt. ; 
Will M. Woolridge, Sergt. ; Edward O. Anderson, Sergt. ; Carl H. Erickson, 
Sergt. ; Cyril D. Page, Sergt. ; Herbert Metzger, Corp. ; George F. Wilkinson, 
Corp. ; Elmer O. Halvorsen, Corp. ; Lester A. Jeffrey, Corp. ; Harry J. Hal- 
verson, Corp.; Ben J. Craven, Corp.; Christian E. Boe, Cook; Ernest Nehring, 
Cook. 

Privates 

Jesse V. Alexander, Robert D. Barnfather, Clarence A. Bell, Charles O. 
Bradley, Malcolm G. Brawley, Arthur E. Brooks, Phillip J. Carpentier, Wilfred 
J. Carpentier, William J. Chambers, Walter F. Charnholm, Mike F. Clark, 
Thomas Clausen, Edward B. Craven, Clarence E. Evans, Frank W. Evans, Harry 
P. Evans, Stephen W. Field, Arthur C. Gardner, Leslie C. Grover, Casper E. 
Gunderson, Christie Hahm, Logan M. Hardaway, Frank S. Harvey, Roy M. 
Hendricks, Reginald R. Holland, John W. Holloway, Cecil S. Jackson, Percy R. 
Jaynes, Peter D. Johnson, Ira L. Jaynes, Leo B. Kingston, Holver K. Koppang, 
Nicholas J. Lahr, Benjamin Leifson, William B. Law, Howard F. McDonald, 
Robert E. McWilliams, Dewey E. Marston, John C. Matthews, Luther J. Mon- 
son, Clarence G. Personius, Hughie A. Puffer, Thomas B. Randolph, Gerhard 
A. Roed, Hjalmer Rud, John H. Ruetten, Littleo Shanks, Henry J. Schutt, Axel 
Selseth, Gerard P. Sheldall, John M. Shen, Shaker A. Shikany, Ellis R. Slater, 
Charles E. Smith, Lester S. Taylor, John T. Thompson, Walter L. Warner, Claire 
A. Wilder. 

COMPANY F 

Guttorm I. Solum, Capt. ; Vincent J. Melarvie, ist Lieut.; Robert Wilson, 2d 
Lieut. ; Gilbert W. Cass, ist Sergt. ; Martin A. Mossbrucker, Q. M. Sergt. ; Ralph 
G. Hansen, Sergt. ; Clarence L. Hassell, Sergt. ; Peter A. Duchene, Sergt. ; Custer 
A. Lang, Sergt. ; John K. Kennelly, Corp. ; Paul W. Bastine, Corp. ; Glen A. Gray, 
Corp. ; John A. Shaw, Corp. ; Edgar Newgaard, Corp. ; Praley Hausen, Corp. ; 
Archie H. Fink, Corp. ; Charles M. Russell, cook ; Dave J. Welch, cook ; Harry 
J. Brown, artificer ; Theodore W. Hillius, musician. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 595 

Privates 

William C. Andrews, Christ Aroando, George Bailey. Fred M. Barnes, James 
Blazek, Jesse M. Castle, Russell Cyrus, Fred W. Dieter, Frank E. Emard, Francis 
Fanning, Tom Firof, William V. Fox, William Gehrke, Walter H. Hecker, Rob- 
ert J. Huff, Ralph Hunter, Harold J. Jones, George Kisch. Peter Klick, John R. 
Krogland, Victor Lindor, Arthur A. Loy, Raymond McAdams, Thomas F. 
McCarthy, Albert E. Morris, James Mullen, Jacob Myers, Irwin C. Nichols, Joseph 
O. Olson, Oscar Olson, Richard Peters, Orva G. Pruyn, Frank Rambur, Hugo 
O. Renden, Erwin E. Ricker, Olin Roth, David E. Rutland, George A. J. Sandvig, 
Henry J. Schafer, Steve Shvaro, William B. Skjod, Earl Slater, Paul A. R. 
Slipka, Bert O. Smith, Richard Snyder, Nathaniel Starck, Robert M. Thurston, 
John A. Timmerman, Raymond Tipper, Bernard Toelke, Leigh Wade, Maurice 
Wasem. 

COMPANY G 

David S. Ritchie, Capt. ; Milton H. Mason, ist Lieut.; Fay Ross, 2d Lieut. 
Harry N. Olsby, 1st Sergt. ; Edwin C. Baumey, O. M. Sergt. ; Harley McCready, 
Sergt. ; Neal Tracy, Sergt.; Clarence V. Carlson, Sergt.; John T. Brush, Sergt.; 
Ross G. Wills, Sergt. ; Ronald McDonald. Corp. ; Thomas J. Brady, Corp. ; Har- 
old Jobe, Corp. ; Ole Brandvold, Corp. ; Giles Personius, Corp. ; Frank S. Booth, 
Corp. ; Lon Ryan, cook ; Edward L. Anderson, artificer ; Hurley Codding, musi- 
cian ; Paul Hart, musician. 

Privates 

Clarence Allen. Charles R. Auacker, William A. Andreason, Arnold E. Asel- 
son, John Bartholomew, Lee M. Bell, Helmer Berger, Roy C. Booth, Robert 
Bridges, Chester E. Brown, Everett Chambard, Harry E. Davidson, Hugh F. 
Dedrick, Walter B. Grannes, Tom Groden, Jens Hausen, James E. Huffman, 
Olaf Hervig, Albert Higginbotham, Andrew E. Highum, RoUin E. Jaberg, Melvin 
J. Johnson, Thomas Jones, Ralph F. Kernkamp, Fred Kunnell, John O. Larson, 
John Leondorf. Walter J. Linthicum, Douglas Martin, Harry Mingle, Archie 
Mix, John F. Morse, Roy Nelson, Arne Olstad, Bjom J. Osborne, Conrad Peder- 
son, Peder Pederson, George Peterson, Thomas H. Peterson, Floyd Penn, Adry 
H. Pfusch, William J. Shaw, Howard M. SoUin, Raymond StiUings, Bernard 
O. Swanson, Walter Taylor, Alvin G. Swanson, John B. Thochlie, Joe S. Lender- 
wood, Junius Wall, Harry Weihemuller. Bert W. Weston, Robert Wilson, Earl 
"S'ounkin. 

COMPANY H 

James D. Gray, Capt. ; Calvin H. Smith, ist Lieut. ; Alex Steinbach, 2d Lieut. ; 
Alfonso J. Steinbach, ist Sergt. ; Roy F. Nowlin, Q. M. Sergt. ; Thos. Oliver, 
Sergt. ; Lewis B. Allen, Sergt. ; Alexander G. Woychik, Sergt. ; Bert Hurst, 
Sergt. ; John F. Nolet, Sergt. ; Fredrick R. Kellogg, Corp. ; Alvin Frickert, Corp. ; 
Vernon B. Zacher, Corp. : Dewey W. Hagen, Corp. ; Robert E. Dinehart, Corp. ; 



596 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Henry Feickert, Corp. ; John L. Teves, cook ; Clifford Gallipo, cook ; Marion E. 
Steinbach, artificer; Harry J. Hornby, musician. 

Privates 

Earl Bensch, Kyle Beach, Raymond Bensch, Carl J. Bergquist, Philip T. 
Blewett, Charles E. Brand, Frank Briggs, William C. Broguton, Dorman Brown, 
Sumner G. Brown, Patrick Conlon, Ray E. Cornwall, Jess F. Crabtree, James 
C. Cusator, Lance Devericks, Richard T. Dozier, William Farley, William Fidder, 
Max Giese, Richard E. Giese, Allan D. Gunderson, Robert K. Hall, Frank Ham- 
ilton, Thomas W. Hatten, John Johnson, Willard Johnston, Francis Judkins, John 
Kubis, Parker LaMoure, Hugh Lee, Fred S. Lieber, Bert E. Lyon, Arthur Mc- 
Cann, Virgel McCombs, Frank Newberry, Andrew Olson, Arthur E. Parkinson, 
Jr., Harvey H. Pederson, Walter T. Peterson, Alexander Plank, Reuben Poindex- 
ter, Jr., Ben Ramsey, Arthur H. Ratzlaff, Joseph A. Reis, Roland E. Rhoads, How- 
ard Richcreek, Lyle Roberts, Fred M. Romer, Nick Romer, Charles W. Schaller, 
John V. Seroy, William Severin, Sanford A. Shain, Jr., Herbert Siebold, Fred 
Smith, Jr., James Smith, Alex. Soransen, Jacob Von Guyten, Ambrose Walsh, 
Jr., John A. Wjashburn, Arthur P. Wheeler, Alfred M. Williamson, Walter F. 
Willard, Alixia Willette. 

COMPANY I 

Thomas J. Thomsen, Capt. ; Carl M. Ulsaker, ist Lieut.; Leo H. Dominick, 
2d Lieut. ; Ward W. Wages, ist Sergt. ; Otto M. Oien, Q. M. Sergt. ; Louis Ander- 
son, Sergt. ; Arthur W. McLean, Sergt. ; Wallace E. Morden, Sergt. ; Joseph L. 
Vachon, Sergt. ; Harry R. Clough, Sergt. ; Wallace W. Millard, Corp. ; George J. 
Fischer, Corp. ; Fred Freitag, Corp. ; Werner C. Goerner, Corp. ; Adolph B. Veit, 
Corp.; Marvin L. Ryan, Corp.; Wilkie R. Simard, cook; Walter A. Dunn, cook; 
Arnold C. Forbes, musician ; Lawrence J. Voelker, musician. 

Privates 

Chester M. Aim, Albert J. Bader, Frank R. Bennett, Frank G. Bernard, David 
A. Bezenek, John J. De Fea, Thomas L. De Lancy, Edward A. Demoray, George 
Demoray, George Dvorak, John M. Early, Frank J. Enderson, Isadore J. Engel- 
hard, Harold G. Fleckenstein, George E. Fleming, William M. Friederichs, Ed- 
ward Funfar, Roy D. Garrett, Herbert Goettleman, Joseph Grenrath, Melbert 
C. Green, Linton M. Harris, Oliver T. Hess, Clifford D. Homan, Robert A. 
Hughes, Kinsey Hutchens, Roy A. Hutchens, Lewis C. Jensen, John C. Jorgen- 
son, Philip Kolegraff, Robert W. Kramer, Henry A. Krebs, Oscar Krueger, Nels 
L. Larson, Charles Leschke, Sam M. Lock, Louis P. Margenton, Severin Mik- 
kelson, Albert G. Miller, William A. Miller, Rogert P. Moore, Bernard J. Mundt, 
Leo. Nebraske, Milo S. Parks, Nickhola Passas, Erwin L. Persons, Ira A. Piper, 
Frank Podraza, John Pulaski, Charles Radtke, Howard E. Rice, Joseph E. Rick- 
ert, Harry E. Ross, Edward F. Russell, Lyal St. John, Anthony Schiller, Paul 
E. Sewrey, Carl W. Sherley, John P. Sinclair, Curtis G. Solsvig, Leslie J. Steph- 
ens, Bert A. Story, Louis Stuart, William W. Thaw, Francis Traylor, William 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 597 

A. Tyra, Henry Ulrich, Claude C. Vaught, George E. Wagner, William H. Wei- 
mar, William Wilson, William H. Wolfe. 

COMPANY K 

Clarence N. Barker, Capt. ; John F. D. Wiley, ist Lieut.; Albert Behonek, 
2d Lieut. ; Chris J. Kunz, ist Sergt. ; Bert W^ddell, Q. M. Sergt. ; Leon Stuck, 
Sergt. ; Frank L. Flynn, Sergt. ; Robert L. Hill, Sergt. ; James L. Monson, Sergt. ; 
Sidney L. Morrison, Corp. ; Vincent T. Mikantsch, Corp. ; Stanley Grubb, Corp. ; 
Paul H. Erb, Corp.; Robert C. Greenwood, Corp.; Archie C. Gibson, Corp.; 
William J. Banish, Corp. ; Odin H. Anderson, cook ; John S. Hinds, cook ; Alfred 
C. Palmer, artificer; Thomas J. Lenhardt, musician; Dewey Wiley, musician. 

Privates 

Ernest S. Angliss, Mathias J. Beres, Earl B. Brassington, Alvin Breda, Julius 
Breda, Walter W. Brenner, George D. Brodie, Joseph F. Brodie, Fred W. Ber- 
telsen, George H. Butler, Robert L. Coulter, Robert M. Dickson, Henry M. 
Douglas, Cyril L. Drury, Gunnar E. Forsen, Robert W. Gilliam, Otis Griffin, 
Wilber W. Haire, Edwin F. Hastings, Louie F. Hatzenbuchler, Harold A. Hill, 
Joseph Hodson, Glen D. Hollenbeck, Charley R. Hubbard, Frank P. Kessel, Jo- 
seph P. Koch, Harold D. Lillibridge, William E. Littlehales, Henry J. McLaughlin, 
Jerry G. Mahoney, Lyall B. Merry, Adelbert Morey, John Morganthelar, Harold 
W. Parker, Marvin G. Reed, Frank Richards, Quintin Roberts, Fred Russell, 
Louis W. Schmidt, Valentine Schwan, Creatis D. Shira, Lowell W. Shira, Alfred 
Skinner, Judson Stanton, Earl H. Vanstrum, Ernest Vessey, Joseph Vrana, Lee 
Waddell, Foster White. 

COMPANY L 

Barney C. Boyd, Capt.; Berto A. Olson, ist Lieut.; Gunder M. Larson, 2d 
Lieut.; Norviel G. Nyhus, ist Sergt.; Jorgen L. Talmo, O. M. Sergt.; Chester 
W. Forre, Sergt. ; Fred G. Gulnecht, Sergt. ; Johnnie Torgerson, Sergt. ; Allen 
G. Gilbertson, Sergt. ; Arthur Serumgard, Sergt. ; Henry J. Harstad, Corp. ; Paul 
Scott, Corp. ; Hans A. Gilbertson, cook ; Jerome Baglien, cook ; Sam Allen, ar- 
tificer; Robert T. Coutts. musician; John M. McGee, musician. 

Privates 

Harry A. Anderson, Casper Arneson, Peter Arneson, John A. Becker, Ingvald 
Bergan, Leon H. Brown, Nick Chester, William C. Chrispen, John Christensen, 
Leslie Christie, George J. Constans, Ralph E. Curtis, Harold W. DeLude, Henry 
L. Ellingsom, Filing G. Evenson, August B. Falk, Dewey V. Fink, Dewey V. 
Fisher, George Freson, Leonard D. Gilbert, Spencer R. Gilbert, Maurice Girard, 
Arthur Hagen, Thomas J. Hall, Albert B. Hankey, Knude A. Hansen, Oscar 
L. Hanson, Henry W. Harris, Clarence Holland, Iver L. Iverson, Adolph E. 
Kamplin, Arthur R. Kelly, Derice G. Kennedy, Peter Kleven, Bernard J. Kohan, 
Peder M. Kristiansen, Carl E. Larson, Edward R. La Berge, Ovid L. La Berge, 



598 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Sam M. Lodmell, Mike Ludeen, Francis McDonald, Vernon L. McHalfie, Law- 
rence J. McNamee, Elmer N. Martin. Herbert Moerke, Malcolm Morrow, Archie 
E. Munter, John P. Murphy, Carl P. Myren, Roy C. Xeathery, William F. 
O'Brien, Paul Pecher, Norman W. Peterson, William W. Peterson, Nels N. 
Renden, Jr., Flarry E. Russell, George P. Sand, Oscar Sandvig, Andrew H. Saw- 
yer, x^rthur Scheving, Earl W. Scheewies, Irvin E. Silvy, Henry Skagen, Orlando 
Skagen, Arvid T. Smith, Elmer Solberg, Jesse Sorum, Oscar J. Stearns, Arthur 
C. Strand, Henry Talmo, Fred C. Tassell. Earl H. Telle, Louis P. Trepanier, 
Harold E. Trotter. 

COMPANY M 

Ansel G. Wineman, Capt. ; Oscar G. Holm, ist Lieut.; Harley L Henson, 2d 
Lieut.; John A. Stevens, ist Sergt. ; James M. Culliton, Q. M. Sergt. ; Axel E. 
Knutson, Sergt. ; Carl W. Halten, Sergt. ; Clarence D. Locklin, Jr., Sergt. ; Merwyn 
H. Hanson, Sergt. ; Earl E. Hanson, Sergt. ; Eugene Vandeneynde, Corp. ; Arthur 
L. Moebeck, Corp. ; Olaf P. Ringsby, Corp. ; Harold A. Van Dusen, Corp. ; Fred 
M. Locklin, Corp. ; Leroy W. Goodwater, Corp. ; Donald D. Sliverton, cook ; 
Barney Barton, artificer ; Merle Becker, musician ; Helmer M. Hagen, musician. 

Privates 

Chenning G. Anderson, Clarence N. Anderson, Delmar Bjerk, George Bobich, 
Theodore Carl, Harold J. Culliton, Guy Davis, Lester DeLong, Charles Dryden, 
Alexander C. Drysdale, Cecil S. Eddington, Heber L. Edwards, John S. Edwards, 
Harold Ekholt, Wilmer N. Elton, Oscar Enger, Elmer Falconer, Victor Forsness, 
Oren Garland, Edward G. Goodrie, Fred Goodrie, George Gregg, William Gador, 
Morris Goldstein, Alexander O. Gorder, Oscar Gunderson, George A. Hagen, 
Nels Hallstan, Harold Hedican, John Hofifstad, James Hogan, Russell T. Hotter, 
Claude E. Ireland. Charles E. Jellifif, Carrol P. Johnson, Clarence Johnson, Albert 
Jordan, Ad Lahey, William Lahey, Earl V. Lowe, John McKinnon, Boyd Mac- 
donald, Samuel Miner, James IMorgan, Martin T. Moran, William E. Mulligan, 
Fredrick C. Myers, Earl Nelson, Henry M. Nelson, Ager Newark, Theodore 
Newark, Albert C. Nuessle, Herman Olson, Rangvaldur G. Patrick, William W. 
Patterson, Herman Peterson, Max Raines, Edward W. Rogers, Robert B. Rowe, 
Ora C. Salisbury, Harvard N. Schneeweiss, Arnold B. Seymour, Edward R. 
Smith, Fred Stanley, Alpha C. Stoddard, August Svedlund, Harry Thomas, Albert 
Thoreson, Simon Tripp, Leslie G. Trotter, Henry M. Viken, William L. Whit- 
field, Cashmer Yezpski. 

S.^NITARY TROOPS 

Thomas C. Petterson, Maj.; Thomas M. MacLachlin, Capt.; Neil McLean, 
Capt. : George H. Haynes, Sergt. ; Earl M. Crocker, Sergt. ; Arthur McDaniel, 
Sergt. ; Curran G. Rourke, Sergt. 

Privates 

Frank T. Allen, Henry Blake, Ronald D. Campbell, Samuel A. Daniels, Harold 
Evans, Raynal Hammelton, Cornelius McNally, Harley Moore, ^''incent Sinnott, 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 599 

Everett Stoudt, Thomas Streeter, Wayne Watts, Ivan M. Webster, George Blake, 
Cecil R. Campbell, William Carlson, Edwin Hansen, Basil Howell, Archie H.' 
Reed, Charles J. Thompson. 

DETACHMENTS MUSTERED IN AFTER THE CALL 

Clarence X. Barker, Capt. ; Daniel C. Mulick, ist Lieut.; Alfred C. Coates, 
chief musician; Fred Strebig, Sergt. ; Austin E. Belyea, private; Leslie H. Lang- 
ley, private ; Wallis R. Bailey, private ; John A. Bonnett, private ; Neil G. Calkins, 
private ; Herman Christensen, private ; Walter Cork, private ; Robert -Duthie, 
private; Aksel H. Enger, private; Frank Gagnon, private; Harold R. Garrett, 
private ; George B. Hodge, private ; Daniel D. McLaren, private ; Esley E. Norton, 
private; Albert L. Lutjens, private; Phil. St. Pierre, private; Stephen Samson, 
private ; Sindelar, private ; Elmer A. Stokke, private ; Harry H. Weeden, private ; 
Paul R. C. White, private; Roy S. Williams, private; Eari Wynne, private; 
George Zaiusky, private ; John P. Dwyer, private ; Ernest A. Harris, private. 

ROSTER OF OFFICERS, I916 

Governor L. B. Hanna. Cominander-in-Chief, Bismarck, X. D. ; Brig.-Gen. 
T. H. Tharalson, Adjutant-General, Bismarck, N. D. ; Col. Frank P. Allen, Chief 
of Supplies, Lisbon, N. D. ; Col. H. R. Bitzing, Tudge Advocate-General, Man- 
dan. X. D. 

governor's staff 

Aides with the rank of colonel. Those with the asterisk served in the Spanish- 
American War and Philippine Insurrection. 

=^W. C. Treumann, Maj. Gen. Ret, Grafton; *C. F. Mudgett, Maj. Sup. List, 
X'alley City ; A. L. Knauf , Capt. Sup. List, Jamestown ; Gilbert W. Davis, Fargo ; 
Alex. Scarlett, Mmot ; C. E. BatcheUer, Fingal ; Dr. D. Lemieux, Dunseith ; Henry 
Hale, Devils Lake ; Oscar Knudson, Grand Forks. 

On detail by the War Department under provisions of act of Congress with 
National Guard: *R. R. Steedman, Maj. U. S. A. Ret., Bismarck, February 7, 
1910; *F. H. Turner, ist Lieut. Infantry, Inspector-Instructor, Bismarck, Decem- 
ber 28, 1912. 

first infantry 

Headquarters, Grafton; Hospital Corps, Lisbon; Band, Lisbon; Company A, 
Bismarck; Company B, Fargo; Company C, Grafton; Company D, Minot; Com- 
pany E, Williston ; Company F, Mandan ; Company G, Valley City ; Company H, 
Jamestown ; Company I, Wahpeton ; Company K, Dickinson ; Company L, Hills- 
boro ; Company M, Devils Lake; Machine Gun Company, Grand Forks. 

first regiment infantry, north DAKOTA NATIONAL GUARD 

Col. J. H. Fraine, Lieut.-Col. G. C. Grafton, Maj. Dana Wright, Maj. F. S. 
Henry, Maj. G. A. Fraser, Capt. T. S. Henry. Capt.-Adjt., ist Lieut. J. W. 
Murphy, Batt.-Adjt., ist Lieut. H. H. Hamilton, Batt.-Adjt., ist Lieut. L. R. 



600 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Baird, Batt.-Adjt., 2d Lieut. L V. Metzger, Batt.-O. M., 2d Lieut. J. D. Prentice, 
Batt.-Q. M., 2d Lieut. John Graham, Batt.-Q. M., ist Lieut. Moultrie, Chaplain. 

Company A. Capt. A. B. Welch, ist Lieut. F. D. Graham, 2d Lieut. Ward L. 
Pre.ston. 

Company B. Capt. G. A. M. Anderson, ist Lieut. R. C. Colley, 2d Lieut. R. 
Hill. 

Company C. Capt. M. H. Sprague, ist Lieut. G. Ofstedahl, 2d Lieut. W. K. 
Truemann. 

Cornpany D. Capt. F. E. Wheelon, ist Lieut. F. O. Gross, 2d Lieut. A. E. 
\Vhitney. 

Company E. Capt. H. R. Evans, ist Lieut. E. W. Jeffry, 2d Lieut W. W. 
Jefifry. 

Company F. Capt. G. L Solum, ist Lieut. V. J. Malarvie, 2d Lieut. Robt. 
Wilson. 

Company G. Capt. D. S. Richy, 1st Lieut. Milton Mason, 2d Lieut. Fay Ross. 

Company H. Capt. James V. Gray, ist Lieut. Calvin Smith, 2d Lieut. Alex. 
Steinbach. 

Company L Capt. T. J. Thomsen, ist Lieut. C. M. Ulsacker, 2d Lieut. Leo 
Dominick. 

Company K. Capt. C. M. Barker, ist Lieut. Dean Wiley, 2d Lieut. Albert 
Bohoneck. 

• Company L. Capt. B. C. Boyd, ist Lieut. B. A. Olson, 2d Lieut. Henry 
Halvorson. 

Company M. Capt. (vacancy), ist Lieut. O. G. Holm, 2d Lieut. Fred Moore. 

Machine Gun Company. Capt. L. L. Eckman, ist Lieut. B. C. Mulick. 

Hospital Corps. Maj. T. C. Patterson, Capt. Neil McLean. 

FIRST REGIMENT NORTH DAKOT.\ INF.^NTRY 

The First Regiment of North Dakota was organized January 31, 1885, under 
the Territory of Dakota. The National Guard of North Dakota was reorganized 
under Governor John Miller, first governor of North Dakota, in 1889, and was 
designated as the First Regiment, North Dakota National Guard, Gen. W. H. 
Topping, Adjutant-General, and Col. A. P. Peake, Commanding First Regiment. 

This regiment remained so until the Spanish-American war, when two bat- 
talions with Col. W. C. Truemann commanding, was mustered into service of 
the United States as the First North Dakota Volunteer Infantry, April 26, 1898. 
This regiment served in the Philippines under Gen. S. Overshine and Gen. Henry 
W. Lawton, United States army, taking part in thirty-two engagements and 
skirmishes in and around Manila, P. I. This regiment returned to the United 
States and was mustered out of service September 22, 1899. 

It again was organized as the First Regiment of Infantry of North Dakota, 
and under the Dick Bill, as the First Regiment of Infantry of the Organized 
Militia of the United States, and as such they were mustered into the service of 
the United States at Fort Lincoln on June 30, 1916, as the First North Dakota 
Regiment, Col. John H. Fraine, commanding. 

The National Guard consists of the First Regiment of Infantry, which con- 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 601 

stitutes the field and staff, band, twelve letter companies, a Machine Gun Company 
and Sanitary Detachment, Medical Corps. 

Other organizations in connection with this regiment are as follows : Quarter- 
master Corps, Major Paul R. Tharolson in command, Major Harold Sorenson, 
Captain Warren A. Stickley and Captain John W. Rock. The Field Hospital 
was organized by Major T. C. Patterson at Lisbon, during the month of May, 
1917, with Capt. Neil McLean, of Kenmare, and Lieut. Charles E. Hunt, of 
Valley City, as his assistants. 

SUPERNUMERARY LLST 

Major: Charles F. Mudget, Valley City. Captains: Frank Ross, Milton P. 
Wells, Tower City ; Arthur L. Knauf , Jamestown ; Blanchard J. Schoregge, Wil- 
liston ; Edward S. Persons. Minot : Earl R. Sarles, Hillsboro. 

RETIRED LIST 

Major Generals: Herbert M. Creel, Devil's Lake; Thomas H. Poole, Bis- 
marck; Amasa P. Peake, Valley City; William C. Treumann, Grafton. 

Brigadier General : Melvin A. Hildreth, Fargo. 

Colonel : Samuel L. Nuchols, Mandan. 

Majors: Dorman Baldwin, Jr., Jamestown; Ambrose J. Osborne, Dickinson. 

Captains : J. D. Eaton, Dimseith ; Ole Manderud, Jamestown ; Herbert C. 
Fish, Hope ; James D. Stenson, Devil's Lake. 

The war record made by this organization is an enviable one. In the Philippine 
campaign it proved to be one of the most valiant in the Spanish-American war, 
and drew the compliment from General Henry Ware Lawton, "You can't stampede 
the First North Dakota." 

Upon the reorganization of the regiment after its return from the Philippines, 
many of the officers were chosen from the veterans of that campaign. In July, 
1917, fourteen of them were still with the regiment. 

June 18, 1916, President Wilson called the National Guard to the Mexican 
border, and on June 25th the First North Dakota Infantry answered, and was 
mobilized at Fort Lincoln, near Bismarck, and remained in camp until the even- 
ing of July 22d, when about 1,100 men entrained for Mercedes. Texas, a point 
which witnessed some of the worst crimes in the raids along the Mexican border. 
For six months they patrolled the banks of the Rio Grande, and did much toward 
bringing order out of chaos in that part of the country. Of all the many regiments 
on the border at that time, this regiment stood among the very best in every 
respect. 

January 23d, 1917, they entrained for Fort Snelling, where they were mus- 
tered out on the 14th of February; arriving in North Dakota on the isth. Each 
division of the organization was accorded the most hearty reception ufKDn arrival 
at its home station. 

But the work of the First Regiment was only begun, for on March 25th fol- 
lowing, the Second Battalion, under command of Major Dana Wright, consisting 
of Company A, Bismarck : F. Mandan ; H of Jamestown, and K of Dickinson, 
was called into Federal service. Companies A and F were encamped at the 



602 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Northern Pacific bridge, which spans the Missouri River between Bismarck and 
Mandan, where they guarded that structure. Company H was sent to Valley 
City, and a detachment of that company sent on to Fargo, where they did 
similar duty, but Company K was sent to Fort Missoula, Montana, to guard that 
fort. The latter company was withdrawn about June ist, and sent to Fort 
Lincoln, where Companies A and F were also stationed. The companies did their 
turn guarding the bridge and the fort. 

Orders from the War Department required that the companies be recruited up 
to war strength, and on July 15, 1917, when ordered into service, the ranks were 
filled. 

In March, 1918, the North Dakota National Guard was a part of a sector 
in the front line in France doing valiant service in the great battle for the 
freedom of nations, and for world democracy. 




' ^-A 






/^ k'H^ 







H 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 
THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION IN NORTH DAKOTA 

"History maketh a young man to be old, without either wrinkles or gray hairs. * * * 
Yea, it not only maketh things past present; but enableth one to make a rational conjecture 
of things to come." 

— Thomas Fuller. 

The general election in North Dakota in 1916, may properly be styled a revo- 
lution. It was full of surprises and the causes leading up to it should go into 
the history of the state. A former revolution, when the populists gained control, 
came from the fear of so-called bosses and the domination of corporate influences. 
It was gained through the Farmers' Alliance, whose organizers visited all por- 
tions of the state, organizing at one point in the morning, at another in the fore- 
noon, others at midday, in the afternoon, in the evening, and late at night. Their 
work being in secret there was no opportunity to refute or explain the allegation 
which set the hearts of the farmers aflame, and led to distrust of the party in 
power. The fact that the affairs of the state had been properly administered and 
that the railroads, against whom their shafts were directed, had reason to encour- 
age and none to destroy or retard their prosperity, was ignored. Control of the 
state government was their purpose, and it was accomplished. The revolution 
was quite as complete as in 1916. There was then no charge of corruption ; it 
was an uprising of a class to gain measures of protection they deemed essential. 

THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 

In the legislative assembly of 1914, there was a determined movement on 
the part of the farmers to secure a large appropriation from the state for a 
state owned and operated terminal elevator at St. Paul. Delegations of farmers 
from all over the state, under the leadership of George S. Loftus of St. Paul, 
who had been from 1912 the sales manager for the Equity Exchange at St. 
Paul, labored with might and main to induce the Legislature to make the appro- 
priation. The refusal of the Legislature to accede to the wishes of the farmers, 
was the primary cause of the revolution which has taken place in the political 
history of the state. 

The Board of Control of the State, by direction of Governor Hanna, had 
investigated the provincial owned elevators in Manitoba and in Canada, and re- 
ported to the Legislature that these elevators had been operated at a loss, and 
had been of no substantial benefit to the farmers of that dominion in the regu- 
lating of grades, or in obtaining higher prices for their grain, and that it would 
be unwise for the state to appropriate for the construction of a tenninal elevator 

603 



604 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

to be operated by officers of the state, as it would certainly prove a bad invest- 
ment of state funds. That it could in no wise control the grading or inspection 
of wheat, and would be without influence in fixing the price of grain. That the 
great law of supply and demand was the controlling factor, and prices were 
always regulated by the surplus over home consumption, which was shipped to 
foreign countries, and determined in a large degree the price. 

This report had much to do with the action of the Legislature. The report 
did not, however, convince the farmers. They felt that through mi.xing of wheat 
and in other ways they were not getting the grade their wheat was to receive 
from the Millers' Association at Minneapolis, and the great elevator companies 
in Duluth, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Chicago, and the only way in which they 
could get proper inspection and grading of their grain, and a price according to 
its quality was to have their own terminal elevator. 

In the fall of 1914, Mr. A. C. Townley. now president of the Farmers' Non- 
partisan League, and the most prominent man in its organization, began his plan 
of campaign and entered actively upon the forming of what is now known as 
the Farmers' Nonpartisan League. In this work he had the active co-operation 
of a Mr. Russell, a writer for the Pearsons ^Magazine. The plan of organization 
was the creating of an executive committee of five, who were to outline the 
policy and the. work of the league. They put organizers and speakers into the 
field with the program of what they expected to accomplish in the way of legisla- 
tion in 1917. 

They were to obtain members of tlie farmers" organization who would pledge 
themselves to favor the nomination and election of members of the Legislature, 
pledged to work out a different system of grain grading and inspection, and 
would favor the building of a state controlled and operated terminal elevator, 
state hail insurance, state owned and operated mills, factories and packing houses. 
Each farmer who became a member of the league was to receive for a year a 
copy of Pearsons Magazine, and a weekly newspaper called The Non Partisan 
Leader, which they started in Fargo, with David C. Coates of Spokane, Wash., 
as the editor. 

The organization moved forward by leaps and bounds and prior to the June 
primaries, they claimed to have enrolled as members of the organization from 
thirty-six to forty thousand farmers, thirty thousand of whom had theretofore 
been identified with the republican party in the state, and from six to eight thou- 
sand of whom had been identified with the socialist and democratic parties in 
the state. 

In the fall of 1915, and in the spring and summer of 1916. they had perfected 
Iheir organization in practically every county in the state. The executive com- 
mittee arranged a large number of what they called picnics held in each legisla- 
tive district of the state; they called upon these district organizations to send 
delegates to a state meeting to be held in Fargo the last of March, or about the 
first of April, 1916. This convention was very largely attended by farmers 
representing every section of the .state. They decided to put no farmers' ticket 
as such in the field, but to nominate a state ticket as republicans, headed by Lynn 
J. Frazier of Pembina County for governor. They did endorse one democrat of 
the name of Casey for state treasurer, and they proceeded to name state senators 
.und state representatives from every senatorial and legislative district. A very 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 605 

large proportion of these nominees had theretofore been affihated with the repub- 
lican party, and were endorsed as republicans. 

Under a state law the voters of the state are registered by the assessors. Each 
man must declare his party affiliation and he must vote in the primarj' election 
the ticket that he declares for, and to carry out their plans some eight thousand 
or more democrats and socialists registered as republicans that they might vote 
for the ticket named by the Non Partisan League. 

In the June primaries the entire state ticket as named by the convention was 
nominated, and in the election on November 7th, were elected, excepting the 
democrat, Casey, for state treasurer, who was defeated by the republican candi- 
date, Steen, by a small majority. 

The league officers took no stand on national candidates for president or 
senators or congressmen. They left that to the individual judgment of the re- 
publicans. The great work in Congress for national inspection by Senator Porter 
J. McCumber was favorable to his election. The republican candidates for Con- 
gress were also elected. 

The essential purpose claimed by the officers of the league is to prevent the 
acquisition of enormous fortunes by persons who make no adequate return for 
them and to make easier and pleasanter the lot of the actual toiler in every 
legitimate field of endeavor. 

Their program appears to include the public ownership of everything that 
enters into the business of production and distribution. Whether the state is 
to become a great social and business organization with the activities of all its 
members directly under its control remains to be demonstrated. Presumably the 
power placed in their hands by an intelligent and confiding people will be wisely 
used. 

GOVERNOR LYNN J. FRAZIER 

Lynn J. Frazier was born on a farm in Steele County, Minnesota, on Decem- 
ber 2ist, 1874. His father came with his family to North Dakota in the spring 
of 1 88 1, and settled on Section 33 of Township 159, Range 54, in Pembina County. 
Thomas Frazier. his father, built a little sod house in which his family lived for 
several years. Lynn Frazier's present home is on the same place, practically the 
only home he has ever known. 

The boy Lynn began his education in the country school in his neighborhood ; 
later he went to Grafton High School, where he graduated at the age of seventeen. 
His father had died a year before and he and his brothers had taken up the work 
of running the farm. 

The next fall Lynn, mature and manl^- for his age, began teaching a country 
school, developing an ambition to become a well-educated man, having visions of 
a profession, as a lawyer or a doctor. At 19 years of age he entered the Normal 
School at Mayville, graduating with that institution's first class in 1895, when he 
returned to teaching, with his former teachers and classmates predicting for him 
a brilliant future in whatever profession he might adopt. 

He continued teaching for two years. 

In the fall of 1897, young Frazier, then nearly 23, entered the state university 
of Grand Forks. He had been a classmate at Mavville Normal with N. C. Mac- 



606 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Donald, now Superintendent of Public Instruction. They roomed together and 
"batched" during their college career. Frazier's main diversion was football. 
He was a husky farmer's boy and he had little difficulty making the university 
team. He was of the square, blocky type- ideal for a center in those days of 
driving line rushes and he became the most important cog in an excellent football 
machine. 

In his junior year he was captain of the team, a team which the "old boys" 
say was the best the state university ever turned out. It was undefeated during 
its season and only six points were scored against it. He was re-elected captain 
for the senior year, an unusual honor in football history, for this position is 
usually passed around to a different player each year. 

Frazier graduated from the university in 1901 with a brilliant scholarship 
record and practically all the honors his classmates could give him. 

The death of his brother, who had been in charge of the farm, caused his 
return to the farm, where he proved himself a good and successful farmer. 

Two years after his graduation from college, Frazier was married to Lottie 
Stafford, daughter of a neighboring farmer. When twin girls were bom to 
them a year later there was something of a celebration at the university, where 
Frazier was still a hero.' Congratulations were sent to the farm north of Hoople 
and it was the mother's idea to name the girls Unie and Versie as a tribute to 
the college. 

The girls are now ( 1917) twelve years old and they have two brothers, Vernon, 
ten, and Willis, eight. 

Lynn Frazier never had been in politics, aside from the calls his neighbors 
had made on him for service in his own community ; he had not sought office. 
For a number of years he had been a member of the township board of Elora 
township, for three or four years he had been its chairman, was a member of 
the board of directors of the rural consolidated school district, and secretary- 
treasurer of the Hoople Farmers' Grain Company and a director of the Crystal 
Home Improvement Company, which operates rural telephone lines and four 
telephone systems; also a director of the Crystal Farmers' Cooperative Mercantile 
Company, which operates a general store at Crystal. He is the owner of three 
quarter sections of land and rents a fourth quarter owned by his niece and 
nephew. 

Locally Frazier was active as a prohibitionist, as his father was before him. 
Never having tasted liquor himself he has seen something of its use, through 
periods when prohibition has been laxly enforced in his neighborhood and he 
has been a constant agitator for more thorough methods of enforcement. 

At the final mass meeting of the League in Fargo following the convention, 
Governor Frazier related the circumstances of his being summoned to Fargo to 
receive the nomination. He had driven into town for the girls and was informed 
that he was wanted at the telephone, where he learned it was the League head- 
quarters at Fargo talking and that they wanted him to come at once, but a return 
trip to the farm was necessary for a change of dress, and on reaching Fargo 
the next day he found the League delegates in their convention had nominated 
him for governor. 

President Townley said in introducing Mr. Frazier to the audience of more 
than 2,000 people: "This is one of the rare occasions in the history of American 




Copynghl hy Hii!iiibni- .Studi 



LYXX J. FRAZIER 
Governor of Nortli Dakota 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 607 

states when the office actually has sought the man, as it did in the case of George 
Washington, instead of the man seeking the office. This man is going to be 
elected governor of the State of North Dakota. Your votes and your influence 
will do the work. He is going to be the greatest governor this state has ever 
had, and under his administration this state is going to become the best governed 
state in the Union." 

Mr. Frazier was elected, as prophesied ; his action in office justified the con- 
fidence placed in him ; under his guidance much was accomplished toward bring- 
ing about the changed conditions for which the Non-Partisan League was or- 
ganized. 

Nominally republican, the ticket endorsed by the League was elected at the 
November election with one exception, that of Casey, nominated for State 
Treasurer. 

THE STATE OFFICERS ELECTED 

The officers elected on the ticket with Governor Frazier were : Lieutenant 
Governor, A. T. Kraabel ; Secretary of State, Thomas Hall ; State Auditor, Carl 
R. Kositzky; State Treasurer, John Steen; Insurance Commissioner, S. A. 
Olsness : Attorney General, William Langer ; Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion, N. C. Macdonald ; Commissioner of Agriculture and Labor, John N. Hagan : 
Commissioners of Railroads, S. J. Aandahl, Charles W. Bleick, M. P. Johnson. 

SPECI.\L ELECTION IN 1917 

In April, 1917, Congressman H. T. Helgesen died and a special election was 
held for the choice of his successor, when John M. Baer, who had taken a 
prominent part in the Non-Partisan campaign of 1916, was chosen as the Non- 
Partisan League candidate by a majority over the combined votes of the six com- 
peting candidates. 

The election was called for July 10, 1917. Both the Democratic and Repub- 
lican parties placed candidates in the field for election and four other republicans 
were candidates for the office. The Non-Partisan League, holding that the time 
was ripe for independent action, placed John M. Baer in nomination, and promptly 
announced their platform, embracing the following planks: 

A declaration of loyalty to our country, right or wrong, as against any nation 
with which we may be at war ; — BUT — a determination that, if we found our 
country in the wrong, we should make vigorous efforts to set her right. 

Peace without annexations or indemnities. 

The cessation of secret diplomacy, 

Government control of terminal elevators, flour mills, packing plants, cold 
storage plants, etc. 

The conscription of war profits, 

Free speech and an unmuzzled press. 

International standards of democracy at the close of the war. 

The campaign was vigorously prosecuted by the managers of the several 
parties, but it was apparent that the League, flushed with their victory in the 



608 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

previous November election and gratified by the results of legislative action 
during the previous winter, occupied an invincible position. 

The cheering returns of the early evening soon turned into a landslide and 
long before lo P. M. there was no room for doubt as to the result. The contest 
v/as between the Republican and Democratic and Non-Partisan candidates, with 
the latter winning by a majority over both. The votes for the other four cut 
little figure and had no effect in deciding the results of the election. 

The prime object of the organization of the League in its early inception was 
to benefit the agricultural industries, but it has broadened its purpose in the hope 
of bringing improved conditions for the entire population. As it has broadened 
its purposes its field of opportunity has increased and it presents a new factoi 
in the politics of the country. The aims of the League in its broader field seems 
to include the inauguration of an economic system which will include state ter- 
minal elevators, flour mills, packing plants, cold storage plants, and warehouses. 
A bill was introduced in the last legislature of North Dakota providing for a 
new state constitution, which would empower the state to establish these in- 
dustries within the bounds of the state and to issue bonds for this purpose, the 
debt limitations of the present constitution being a recognized obstacle. 

The necessity for congressional legislation to carry out their plans is also 
recognized and it is planned to make the N'on-Partisan organization nation-wide. 

. HON. JOH.V M. B.\ER 

Mr. Baer is the yoimgest man in Congress, and the junior member, but has 
proven his efficiency. On his arrival at Washington he said in a press inter- 
view: "So far as my own state is concerned, no people on earth are more loyal 
to their country and their flag than the people of North Dakota. We are deter- 
mined that the loyal patriots who lay down their lives in the trenches of Europe 
shall not be robbed of freedom and democracy at home, and that the survivors of 
that bloody conflict shall not return home with maimed and broken bodies, to 
carry the burden of the money cost of the war. Wealth must and shall pay that 
financial cost, or we will know the reason why. Our glorious flag stands for 
equality, for liberty, for justice, and none but a coward or traitor, to our flag 
and our country, will hesitate to enter into this fight for the fundamental prin- 
ciples for which our flag and our country stand, and for the establishment of 
which our forefathers fought and conquered. 

Hon. John'M. Baer was born March 29, 1885, at Black Creek, Wisconsin, a 
son of Capt. John M. Baer, Sr., who served four years in the Civil War, being 
wounded twice. He was a member of the 114th and 120th Ohio Volunteer 
Infantry ; his mother's maiden name was Libbie C. Riley, an author. The Con- 
gressman was educated in the public schools and Lawrence University, at Apple- 
ton, Wisconsin, receiving the degree of B. A. from that institution. He married 
Estella G. Kennedy, daughter of the North Dakota flax king, in Minneapolis, 
Minnesota, at the family home, Dec. 29, 1910. They have two children. He was 
Postmaster at Beach, North Dakota, 1913-1915, resigning to take up the work 
of a farmer cartoonist, at Fargo, North Dakota, on the Non-Partisan Leader 
and other North Dakota papers, Sept. i, 191 5. He was engaged in civil engineering 
and farming from 1909 to 191 5. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 609 

Mr. Baer has always been actively interested in journalistic work, and has 
spoken on the platform of the National Editorial Association, of which he is a 
member. He is also a member of other newspaper organizations. 

He has made a specialty of cartooning and chalk talking. Several of his 
cartoons appeared in the Hearst line of newspapers during the summer of 1917. 
He is the only professional cartoonist who has held a seat in Congress. 

NON-PARTISAN LEGISLATION, I917 

Thirty-three beneficial laws enacted, as follows : 

Filing fees for bonds of township officers cut out. — To compel railways to furnish cars 
to all shippers alike. — To compel railways to furnish sites for elevators and warehouses on 
right of way. — Compels railways to furnish side tracks at coal mines. — Makes railways pay 
employees twice each month. — Passed a splendid warehouse license law. — Prohibited the sale 
of promissory notes taken in payment of insurance premiums. — Combined the Clerk of the 
County Court's office with that of the District Court and saves the salary of one officer. — 
Requires county commissioners to personally supervise road work. — Repealed the law allow- 
ing expenses to Supreme Court. — Passed co-operative corporation law. — A law taxing a 
6o-horse power car $26 and a 20-horse power car $6. All the fees to be spent on the 
roads — Provided for the issuance of writs of error by the Supreme Court. — Prohibiting dis- 
crimination between localities in the price of cream. — Provided for a Dairy Commission. — 
Established a license system for creameries. Prevents unfair dealing. — Prohibiting the sale 
of dangerous drugs. — Guarantee of Bank Deposits law, in which the hanks are all assessed 
to raise the money to guarantee the depositors. — Establishing weighing and grading law for 
the state. — Taxing money and credits that have heretofore escaped. — Providing for 
compensation for convicts who have served time and are afterwards proven innocent. — 
Provided for and established mode! Highway Commission, urged for many years in 
other states, but not put into law which cheapens and standardizes road construction, and 
secures federal aid. — Provided for publication of information for dairymen at state expense — 
established a Welfare Commission, recognized as real reform in the direction of justice — 
to the workers in dangerous callings. — Passed laws for the standardization of rural schools. — 
Levied a 15 per cent Inheritance Tax on large fortunes. — Established evening schools for 
young men and women above school age. — Established County Agricultural and Training 
Schools. — Laws ta.xing foreign corporations that have escaped taxation in the past. — Estab- 
lished township dipping tanks for stock. — Gave the vote to women on everything but the state 
officers. — Appropriated money for experiments at Agricultural College with wheat 
which Dr. Ladd showed was being sold at 70 cents per bushel was worth for making flour 
just as much as No. i Northern that was being sold at the same time at $1.70 per bushel. — 
Passed laws classifying property for taxation, which provides that improvements upon farm 
lands are to be valued at 5 per cent of their actual value, while railroad property, express 
and telegraph, and banks, together with land are to be valued for taxation at 30 per cent of 
their true value. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 
FOUNDING OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN NORTH DAKOTA 

ITS EARLY HISTORY AND WORK THE MISSION AT PEMBINA AND ST. JOSEPH AND 

THEIR RELATION TO ST. BONIFACE BISHOP PROVENCHER, FATHER DUMOULIN, 

FATHER BELCOURT AND OTHER EARLY PRIESTS THE DIOCBSE OF NORTH DAKOTA 

DEATH OF BISHOP SHANLEY. 

"Religion does not censure or exclude 
Unnumbered pleasures harmlessly pursued ; 
To study culture, and with artful toil, 
To meliorate, and tame the stubborn soil. 
To give dissimilar yet fruitful lands 
The grain, or herb, or plant, that each demands." 
— William Cowper. Retirement. 

From an article by the late Bishop John Shanley, to be found in Volume 2, 
North Dakota Historical Collections, 1908, the following facts are condensed 
and others added. 

The earlier trading posts, of which an account is given elsewhere, having 
been abandoned after the cession of Canada by the French to England in 1763, 
the activities of the North West Company were commenced in 1783-4, and in 1806 
this company had 1,200 employees in the Red River region, some of whom inter- 
married with Indian women, giving the origin of the half-blood families in the 
Red River country. 

In 1818, at the request of Lord Selkirk, a Protestant, Bishop J. O. Plessis, of 
Quebec, assigned Rev. Joseph Norbert Provencher and Rev. Joseph Severe Nor- 
bert Dumoulin to St. Boniface, Selkirk, by a due and sufificient deed giving a tract 
of 25 acres for the church and a block of land five miles long and four miles 
wide for the mission. 

Provencher took the title of vicar-general and Dumoulin of missionary 
priest. They left Quebec for the Red River, May 19, 1818. and arrived at St. 
Boniface, which then took its name, July 16, 1818. 

There being the greater population at Pembina, and better means of support 
because of the buiTalo and game in that locality. Father Dumoulin, in September, 
1818, was assigned to Pembina, being accompanied by William Edge, a catechist, 
and they established a mission and school at Pembina, Dumoulin becoming the 
first missionary on North Dakota soil, and Edge the first teacher. 

The instructions of Bishop Plessis were full and explicit, reminding Pro- 
vencher of their duty to the Indians, to the bad Christians living among them, 
to the church, to themselves, to God and their country. 

Dumoulin was sent to Pembina with instructions to pass the winter there, 
y-'ather Provencher, coming to Pembina in January, 1819, also remained that 
winter. The school was then prospering and Father Dumoulin had baptized 

610 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 611 

fifty-two persons; 300 people were in his congregation, their residences being 
grouped around the site of the new chapel, while the number then at St. Boniface 
did not exceed fifty. 

August 16, 1820, Father Provencher left St. Boniface for Quebec. On the 
7th of the same month Rev. Thomas Destroismaisons, acompanied by a catechist, 
Mr. Sauve, arrived at St. Boniface and took up the work there. 

On his arrival at Quebec Father Provencher found he had been appointed 
by a bull of the Holy See, Feb. i, 1820, Coadjutor Bishop of Quebec, with the 
title of Bishop of Juliopolis. He was consecrated May 12, 1822. During his 
absence he secured the services of a young priest, John Harper, ordained at St. 
Boniface, Nov. 21, 1824, who conducted the mission school at St. Boniface for a 
number of years. Bishop Provencher returned to St. Boniface Aug. 7, 1822, and 
in obedience to an edict of the Hudson Bay Company, took the necessary steps 
to close the mission at Pembina, which was not fully accomplished until August, 
1823, when Father Dumoulin, broken hearted, returned to Quebec, and died in 
1853. He was bom at Montreal Dec. 5, 1793, ordained Feb. 23, 1817, serving 
over five years among the people of the Red River county, within the limits of 
North Dakota. September, 1818, therefore, marks the beginning of the life of the 
Catholic Church in North Dakota. 

For three successive seasons the crops, which the colonists had attempted to 
raise in the Red River Valley, had been destroyed by grasshoppers and many 
settlers left the valley completely disheartened. 

Some of the Pembina congregation of Father Dumoulin remained at Pembina, 
some established the parish of St. Xavier on the Canadian side of the line, others 
went to St. Boniface and some to St. Paul, Minnesota. 

Beltrami, writing from Pembina in 1823, speaking of Bishop Provencher, 
said: "His merits and virtues are the theme of general praise and it is said that 
his zeal is not the offspring of ambition ; that his piety is pure, his heart simple 
and generous. He does not give ostentatious bounties at the expense of his 
creditors : he is hospitable to strangers ; and dissimulation never sullies his mind 
or his holy and paternal ministry." 

When notified of his appointment as bishop he was stricken with grief, but 
he finally wrote : "Trembling I accept the burden imposed on me in punishment 
of my sins." 

In 1825 the Hudson's Bay Company passed a resolution commending the 
work of Bishop Provencher and in appreciation of his influence for good recom- 
mended the payment of fifty pounds per annum toward his support. That year 
a flood occurred in the Red River Valley, requiring all of the resources of the 
good bishop in caring for the suffering colonists and others. 

Father Destroismaisons returned to Canada in 1827, after seven years' labor 
in the Red River country, succeeding Father Dumoulin in his work. He in turn 
was succeeded by Rev. John Harper. 

Bishop Provencher opened a school for girls at St. Boniface in 1819, placing 
the school in charge of two sisters of the name of Nolen from Pembina, whose 
father had spent many years as a trader residing at Pembina, North Dakota, thus 
giving to Manitoba its first lady teachers. 

Bishop Provencher went to Canada in 1830, leaving Rev. John Harper in 
charge. On his return he was accompanied by Rev. George Anthony Belcourt, 
who arrived at St. Boniface June 17, 1831, and soon thereafter became the second 



612 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

resident priest in North Dakota. Father Harper then returned to Quebec. In 
1833 R^v. Charles Poire and Rev. John Baptiste Thibault were ordained at St. 
Boniface. 

Father Belcourt had studied the Algonquin language and to him was assigned 
the Indian missions. He soon acquired a perfect knowledge of the Chippewa 
tongue, later composing a grammar and dictionary of that language, published 
after his death by Father Albert Lacombe. For many years the language was 
taught to young missionaries. 

In 1838, Rev. Arsene Mayrand was added to the missionary band and in 
1841, Rev. Jean Darveau was added. He was drowned in 1844. All of these 
priests attended to Catholics at Pembina at times and accompanied the hunters 
whenever they could from 183 1 to 1848, when Father Belcourt became the resi- 
dent pastor at Pembina. For him the town of Belcourt in the Turtle Mountains 
now the site of an important Indian school, was named. 

In 1837, Rev. Modeste Demers, first bishop of Vancouver, labored in the Red 
River missions. In 1848, Rev. Francis Norbert Blanchet, first bishop of Oregon 
City, spent some weeks on the Red River, leaving with Bishop Demers. They 
were the first priests to celebrate mass on the Saskatchewan, but they do not 
appear to have officiated in North Dakota. 

In 1844, Bishop Provencher secured Rev. J. F. Lafleche and Father Joseph 
Bourassa. Accompanied by a small party of gray nuns, they arrived at St. 
Boniface June 21, 1844. Lafleche, in February, 1847, was consecrated coadjfor 
bishop of Three Rivers. He became bishop in 1870 and died July 14, 1898. 

June 24, 1845, Revs. Aubert, an Oblate father, and Alexandre Tache, later 
archbishop of St. Boniface, came. He became coadjutor bishop of St. Boniface 
Sept. 22, 1870, dying June 22, 1894. He was a distant relative of Verendrye, 
who explored the Red River in 1734. Father Tache labored in North Dakota 
and was for many years vicar-general of the American bishops, Grace, Seiden- 
busche, Marty and Shanley, who exercised jurisdiction from 1859. Another 
name not mentioned above is that of Fr. Boucher, from 1827 to 1833. 

Bishop Provencher crossed the plains with a caravan of Red River carts in 
1843 from Pembina to St. Paul. These carts increased from six in 1843 to 162 
in 1851 and 600 in 1858. In going or coming they were generally accompanied 
by a priest, who said mass nearly every morning. 

In 1842, Father Augustine Revoux had began a mission among the Sioux at 
Lake Traverse. It was he who instructed, baptized and assisted thirty-three of 
thirty-eight Sioux executed at Mankato, Dec. 26, 1862, for complicity in the Sioux 
massacre. Bishop Lafleche often claimed he was the pastor at Wild Rice, near 
Fargo, as he had so often officiated there for the Canadian half-bloods and the 
few Indians in that vicinity. Before 1856, mass had been said in every camping 
place from Lake Traverse to Pembina. 

In 1847, Rev. Henry Faraud accompanied the hunters on the plains of North 
Dakota. The population, often to the number of three or four hundred, camped 
on the plains three or four months on their annual hunts, a priest usually accom- 
panying the party. In November, 1864, Father Faraud was appointed vicarate- 
apostolic of Athabasca-McKenzie. 

In 1848, a lay brother (Dube) went with the hunters twice to the prairies in 
the absence of a priest who could accompany them. In 1849, this work was con- 
fined to Fathers Maisoneuve and Tissot. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 613 

Father Belcourt took up his residence at Pembina by permission of Bishop 
Provencher. He came to the Red River in 1831, and remained twenty-eight years. 
His last ministerial act in the Red River country, March 15, 1859, was the 
baptism of Gabriel Grant, for several years chief of police at I'^argo. The church 
records show that Father Belcourt was at Pembina from Aug. 14, 1848, to 
March 15, 1859, and this record affords the oldest record of marriage, births and 
deaths in North Dakota. Father Belcourt's residence was moved to St. Joseph 
(now Walhalla) in 1853, where his work closed in 1859. 

On the hunt, the priest, in addition to his spiritual work, was the magistrate, 
the doctor, and the one who decided all cases without appeal. Father Albert 
Lacombe spent two years at Pembina with Father Belcourt. The church there 
was known as the church of the Assumption, and in 1850 the settlement was com- 
posed of 500 half bloods. In 1854 the church directory claimed over 1,500 
Catholics, mostly half breeds, for the mission at Pembina. In 1855 ^^v. John 
Fayola is mentioned as being with Father Belcourt. In 1856 a Sisters' School is 
mentioned, with 100 pupils. At Walhalla, then known as the Mission of St. 
Joseph, Father Belcourt built a church, Sisters' School and flouring mill. Here 
were seven Sisters at one time. He visited all points in that region and not only 
planted the cross at St. Pauls, the highest peak in the Turtle Mountains, si-x 
miles east of Bottineau, but evangelized that region. 

The fact that the Chippewas did not join the Siou.x in their war of 1862-3 
against the whites is attributed largely to the influence of Father Belcourt, Father 
Andre of North Dakota and Father Pierce of Crow Wing, Minnesota. Father 
Belcourt returned to Canada in 1859 and died in New Brunswick in 1874.- In 
1859, Father Mestre went on the annual hunt and was instrumental in concluding 
a treaty of peace between the Red River half-bloods and the Sioux. 

In 1859, Rev. Joseph Griilin took charge of the missions at Pembina and St. 
Joseph. He was assisted by Father Revoux, from St. Paul, and Fathers Thibault, 
Simonet, Oram and Andre, from St. Boniface. Father Griffin was caught in a 
blizzard near what is now Neche, and remained on the prairie five days, losing 
one leg and part of the other foot from freezing. 

During Father Griffin's administration seventy-four were baptized and eight 
marriages were performed in Pembina, and 118 baptisms and fourteen marriages 
at St. Joseph. 

Bishop Thomas L. Grace of St. Paul visited Pembina in 1861 and placed the 
missions at Pembina and St. Joseph in charge of the Oblate Fathers across the 
line. The priests thereafter in charge until 1887 were at St. Joseph, Reverends 
J. N. Simonet, 1861 ; A. Andre, Oct., 1861, to 1864: H. Gemiain, 1862 to 1865: 
I. B. E. Richer, 1864 to 1869; N. Vergeville, 1865; H. Le Due, 1865; L. Lehsoff, 
1866; A. Laity, 1868; J. M. J. LeFlock, 1868 to 1877; Ignatius Tomagin, 1878; 
J. D. Pillion, 1878, and Louis Bonin, 1877 '^ 1887; Michael Charbouneau visited 
the church there in 1877 and 1878. 

Substantially the same priests were on duty at Pembina during the same 
period, Louis Bonin remaining until 1889, when he was succeeded by Rev. John 
Considine. 

From 1818 to 1880, thirty-three Catholic priests and four bishops had been on 
duty in North Dakota and their work preceded that of any other Christian 
denomination. In 1873 Father LeFlock transferred the St. Joseph mission from 
Walhalla to Leroy. 



6U EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Father DeSmet visited North Dakota in 1840, visiting the Mandan villages 
and Fort Berthold, where he baptized, among others, -Martin Good Bear, Joseph 
Packeneau, and a number of children. 

Father Revoux won the love and sympathy of the Sioux through his minis- 
tration to their condemned brothers at Mankato, and they were ripe for the work 
of Major Forbes, Indian agent at Devil's Lake (1871-1875), through whom the 
first Catholic mission in North Dakota was founded at Fort Totten. Before 1874 
no real missionary work had been done by Catholic priests in North Dakota. 
With the advent of the Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railroads, churches 
and schools were builded in North Dakota. 

Father Genin appears to have been located at Fort Abercrombie in 1868, 
engaged from 1868 to 1874 in mission work between Fort Abercrombie, Mc- 
Cauleyville and Duluth, taking up his residence in Duluth in 1873. He built the 
Catholic church edifices at Moorhead, Minn., and Bismarck ; he visited the Indian 
country in 1876, and became pastor at Michigan City in 1889, and later at Bath- 
gate. 

Father Keller built the first Catholic church in Brainerd, Minn., in 1873. 
Father Spitzelberger built the first in Perham, and paid for the church in Moor- 
head ; he also built the church in Casselton. Father Maddock built in \'alley 
City; Father Flannigan in Jamestown; Father Ouilliam at Buffalo, and Father 
Schmitz at Sanborn. 

The old church at Bismarck was paid for by Bishop Martin Marty in 1876, 
and the Sisters' school was established through his aid; Father Chrysostom becom- 
ingthe pastor there for several years. 

When the territory of Dakota was divided the jurisdiction of Bishop Marty 
was ended by the creation of the See of North Dakota, and John Shanley, Dec. 
2"]. 1889, was consecrated bishop at Jamestown, Fargo later becoming his head- 
quarters, the church and cathedral occupying a building erected by the Methodists, 
until the present fine cathedral was built in 1891. In 1890 he established St. 
John's -Academy at Jamestown, under the charge of the Sisters of St. Joseph. 
There were then sixty churches and thirty-three priests, fourteen church 
schools and one hospital in North Dakota. Mass was said in eighty-one places 
other than churches. In the twenty years of his work the diocese had increased 
to 106 priests, 225 churches, and 38 other places where mass was said, six 
academies, thirty-four parochial schools and four hospitals. 

Bishop John Shanley was born January 5, 1852, at Albion, N. Y. -A.t five 
years of age the family moved to Faribault, Minnesota, and soon afterward to 
St. Paul, where he received his early education, much of it from association with 
frontier priests who visited St. Paul during his service as sanctuary boy at the 
St. Paul Cathedral, from 1858 to 1867. He was graduated at St. John's College, 
Minn., in 1869, and through Bishop Grace at St. Paul was able to enter the 
College of Propaganda at Rome, making the journey to Rome in company with 
.Archbishop John Ireland. He remained in this college where he was ordained. 
May 30, 1874, by special dispensation on account of failing health. When 22 
years of age, he became an assistant pastor to Father Ireland, whom he succeeded 
as pastor when the latter became archbishop. He died at Fargo, July 16, 1909. 

Bishop Shanley took great interest in the development of the material interests 
of Fargo and the state, making large subscriptions to whatever contributed to 
the advancement of the state or of its people. 



CHAPTER XL 
EARLY PRESBYTERL^NISM IN NORTH DAKOTA 

BEGINNING AND PROGRESS OF DEVELOPMENT — FIRST PROTESTANT SERVICE AT PEM- 
BINA ^THE MISSION AND MARTYRS OF ST. JOE — PIONEER WORK AT FARGO 

FIRST CHURCH ORGANIZATION AT BISMARCK EIGHTEEN YEARS* DEVELOPMENT. 

"And they who stray in perilous wastes by night, 
Are glad when thou dost shine to guide their footsteps right." 
— M'tlliam C. Bryant. Hymn to the North Star. 

The first missionary on the Red River was a Scotch Presbyterian catechist, 
James Sutherland, who came with the fourth group of Selkirk colonists in 1815. 
Presumably he visited the colonists at Pembina, but no record has been found to 
show it. The late Dr. Black visited Pembina in company with Governor Ramsey, 
on his way to Winnipeg in 185 1, and assisted Rev. Alonzo Barnard and Rev. 
fames Tanner in the first Presbyterian sen-ice on North Dakota soil of which 
there is record. 

Rev. Oscar H. Elmer began pioneer work at iloorhead and Fargo in October, 
1871, and Grand Forks in February. 1872. 

THE ORGANIZATION .\T BISMARCK 

Rev. David C. Lyon, missionar\' from St. Paul, Minn., visited the Red 
River Valley in June, 1872, accompanied by Rev. Isaac Oliver Sloan, a chaplain 
in the Civil War, assisted by Rev. Oscar H. Elmer, then stationed at Moorhead. 
They held divine service at what is now Crookston, Minnesota. 

June 12, 1873, Mr. Lyon visited Bismarck, accompanied by Rev. Isaac Oliver 
Sloan, and June 15th organized the first religious society in what is now the State 
of North Dakota, the first service being held in a tent erected for gambling, but 
not yet used for that purpose. The score or more of saloons and gambling places 
then doing business at Bismarck closed and the Sunday ball game was declared 
ofif. The members of the Presbyterian Church then organized were Col. 
Clement A. Lounsberry, Henry F. Douglas, John W. Fisher, I. C. .\dams and 
Mrs. W. C. Boswell. 

Mrs. Linda W. Slaughter organized a Union Sunday School of which Colonel 
Lounsberry was secretary. 

Colonel Lounsberry came with the missionary party, to establish the Bismarck 
Tribune, for which he had arranged on a previous visit, May nth, when he made 
settlement on his homestead. 

Rev. I. O. Sloan addressed the audience in the morning and Rev. D. C. Lyon 
in the evening. During the afternoon they conducted senices at Fort Abraham 
Lincoln, and while at service the Indians attempted to run off the beef herd grazing 

615 



616 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

on the flats south of Fort A. Lincohi. One Indian was killed and the beef herd 
recovered by a cavalry dash from the fort by General Custer. Colonel Louns- 
berry and Prof. William F. Phelps of Winona, Minn., accompanied Mr. Lyon on 
this occasion. 

Rev. H. N. Gates, representing the Congregationalists, came a few days 
later, bringing lumber for a Congregational Church, the citizens contributing 
freely to its erection, and when Mr. Sloan returned to commence his work and the 
erection of the Presbyterian Church, he found it difficult to raise money, many 
having contributed to the other who had intended to help him in his work. 

The Gates proposition had been under the lead of Mrs. Linda W. Slaughter, 
who had organized the Sunday school and established a week-day school. The 
Gates building was turned over to her when an understanding w-as reached for 
the Congregationalists to retire from the field, the Presbyterians having already 
occupied it. 

Rev. Isaac O. Sloan was able to secure the erection of the Presbyterian 
church during the summer, but the failure of Jay Cooke and the N. P. Railroad 
Company that fall, so completely paralyzed all business that he was obliged to pay 
lo per cent per month for the money necessary to make it ready for winter. 

This was the first Protestant church building erected in North Dakota. He 
had received $500 aid from friends in St. Paul. 

The church was occupied about the middle of December, and a bazaar was 
given on Christmas which netted $400. Among the contributions sent in was 
a stocking filled with silver dollars from the Magdalens. Mr. Sloan had the love 
of all good people of the town and the respect and good will of all others. He was 
affectionately called Father Sloan, and in cases of serious illness was sometimes 
called to the bedside of Catholics. The following tribute is from the pen of an 
army comrade : 

Washington, D. C, Sept. i, 1917. 
Col. C. A. Lounsberry. 

My Dear Comrade : At your request I most gladly offer my tribute of respect and affec- 
tion to that noble man of God, Rev. Isaac Oliver Sloan, of blessed memory. 

In the summer of 1863, I was taken prisoner and after Belle Isle was paroled and sent 
to Camp Parole, Annapolis, Md. I had not been there long before a severe case of chills 
and fever developed and I was admitted to the Naval Academy Hospital. Mr. Sloan was 
there as an agent of the Christian Commission rendering gratuitous and most beneficent 
services in dispensing the stores of that organization and helpful services to the sick and 
wounded "boys in blue" being treated there. 

I first met him while he ministered his kind and loving services at the beds of the sick 
and dying defenders of the Union. Upon my convalescence, he asked me to assist him 
in serving out the stores. I then had a chance to become intimately acquainted with him and 
can confidently say that no nobler servant of God ministered in the time of our country's 
peril. He became greatly interested in Air. Alfred C. Monroe, a member of the 12th 
Mass. and who had lost an arm, contributing much of time and means to his education 
and enabling him to take an honorable and useful place in life. After I had married he 
visited me, and my oldest son is Rev. Edwin Sloan Tasker, D. D., of the Methodist Church. 
For his beautiful character and saintly life I shall ever hold him in highest esteem and 
affection. "The memory of the just is blessed." 

A. P. Tasker, 
Late 1st N. H. Cavalry, 

Past Commander. 
Dept. Potomac, G. A. R. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 617 

In June, 1873, Mr. Lyon and Mr. Sloan returning from Bismaj-ck conducted 
services at Jamestown. 

The early pastors of the church at Bismarck following Rev. I. O. Sloan 
were Stephen D. Dodd, W. C. Stevens, S. H. Thomson, C. B. Austin, J. N. 
Anderson,' Alexander Durrie and Charles W. Harris. On his retirement Mr. 
Sloan engaged in missionary work on the line of the Northern Pacific Railroad. 
After a long visit East on account of the illness of his mother, he resumed his 
labors. On visiting Green River (now Dickinson), he saw the sign "Rev. C. A. 
Duffy" over the door of a saloon. He called upon the alleged reverend, who 
although greatly embarrassed, gladly contributed $25 for his work. 

The church at Mandan was organized in 1881 by Rev. I. O. Sloan, assisted by 
Rev. C. B. Stevens. The first trustees were Edward F. Doran, Lyman N. Gary, 
Warren Garpenter, Marian A. Winter and Gharles Williams. The early pastors 
were Rev. I. O. Sloan, L. E. Davis, A. G. Dayton, J. F. Killen, P. S. Dayton, 
James Byers, M. W. Kratz, Gilbert Wilson, E. S. Beardsley, Thomas A. Mc- 
Gurdy. 

The corner-stone of the new church edifice was laid October i, 191 6, Rev. 
F. W. Brown, pastor. The stone was laid and an appropriate address given by 
Judge A. A. Bruce, of the North Dakota Supreme Court. 

The first religious services at Sims, D. T., and Glendive, Mont., were held 
by Rev. Mr. Sloan, who had some strenuous experiences in reaching his appoint- 
ments on foot, after wading treacherous creeks and, like his Master, putting up 
with "publicans and sinners." while preaching the gospel in saloons, but was 
generally well treated and someone was always ready to "pass the hat." He 
extended his travels as far as Miles City, Mont., in company with the Rev. Dr. 
Roberts, the secretary of the Board of Home Missions, New York. They 
preached at a mining camp seven miles out, where they found some Christian 
men and had a good meeting. He organized the churches at Glencoe and Stanton. 

THE MISSION AT ST. JOSEPH 

A mission was established at St. Joseph, now Walhalla, in 1851, by Rev. James 
Tanner, a half blood son of John Tanner, the white captive, whose story appears 
in earlier pages of this history. Mr. Tanner was accompanied by Rev. Alonzo 
Barnard, through the earnest solicitation of Gov. Alexander Ramsey of Min- 
nesota, who had as ex-officio Superintendent of Indian Afifairs, secured $500 for 
the work from the government. Norman W. Kittson, Indian trader at Pembina, 
earnestly urged the beginning of this work. Governor Ramsey accompanied the 
party to Pembina and was accompanied by the late Dr. Black, who succeeded to 
the work of the R«v. James Sutherland, early missionary to the Selkirk colony. 
The missionaries, assisted by Dr. Black, held the first Protestant service in 
North Dakota of which there is any record ; when the church was subsequently 
erected (1879) at Pembina, it was on the identical spot where this service was 
held. Dr. Black was present, coming from Winnipeg for the purpose. 

Rev. James Tanner returned to St. Joseph in 1852 accompanied by Elijah 
Terry, a Baptist clergyman, who was killed by hostile Sioux, June 28, 1852. 

June I, 1853, Rev. Mr. Barnard returned, accompanied by David B. Spencer, 
their families and Rev. John Smith. The Barnards were Presbyterians and the 



618 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Spencers Congregationalists. They had been associated as missionaries for ten 
j'ears at Cass Lake. The mission was abandoned in 1855. 

The story of the' Martyrs of St. Joseph will be found at the close of this 
chapter. ^ 

THE PIONEER PRE.\CHER 

Rev. Oscar H. Elmer, the first ordained minister to locate permanently in 
the Red River Valley, left Sauk Center, Minn., October 20, 1871. preaching his 
first sermon October 22d in the dining room of the Chapin House. There were 
then about twenty shanties and tents in the village. 

The Northern Pacific Railroad was finished io Fargo and Moorhead, January 
I, 1872, but trains were unable to run before March. Preaching was maintained 
in the dining room of the Chapin House until spring, and then in railroad coaches, 
in unfinished buildings and warehouses. In June, 1872, a rough chapel was 
erected at Moorhead, Minn., and a church was soon thereafter organized, consist- 
ing of eight members, gathered from both sides of the river. A Sunday school 
had been held in the timber on the Fargo side in J. G. Keeney's board shanty law 
office. Evening preaching service was begun in Fargo, December 17, 1871, in a 
tent. 

Mr. £lmer visited Lisbon in 1871 and conducted services at Grand Forks in 
the uncompleted home of Capt. Alexander Griggs, February 8, 1872 ; visiting also 
Turtle River and other points on the North Dakota side of the Red River. He 
visited Grand Forks again in 1875 and 1877, when he conducted service for 
ten successive nights in the then new Methodist church. Rev. F. W. Iddings 
arrived at Grand Forks in September, 1878, and became the first settled Presby- 
terian minister at that point. 

On April 6, 1879, Rev. C. B. Stevens of Fargo and Rev. O. H. Elmer, drove 
to Grand Forks and assisted Rev. Mr. Iddings in the organization of a Presby- 
terian Church with about thirty members. 

The first meeting of a Presbytery or any other body of ministers held in whai 
is now North Dakota met in the spring of 1881, at Grand Forks. 

In 1876 the Rev. John Scott settled at Pembina upon the spot where the first 
Protestant service was held in 1881 by Revs. Alonzo Barnard and James Tanner. 
He organized a Sabbath school and extended his work to other points in Pembina 
County and to points in Minnesota and Manitoba, and in 1S79. he organized the 
first Presbyterian Church north of Fargo and Bismarck. 

December 11, 1877, Rev. Cicero B. Stevens preached his first sermon in Fargo; 
The church was organized on the 30th. and the church building erected and 
dedicated the latter part of the following October. He was assisted by his 
predecessor and colleague, Rev. O. H. Elmer, of Moorhead, and the Presbyterian 
missionary. Rev. John Irwin. 

Rev. James H. Baldwin arrived from Wisconsin during the winter of 1878-9 
to explore and organize churches between Fargo and Jamestown. 

Among the churches and ministers in T879. were the following: Ministers, 
Revs. James H. Baldwin, Jamestown and Wheatland; E. J. Thompson, Casselton ; 
Cicero B. Stevens, Fargo ; Joseph K. Burgster. Elm River and Elm Grove ; Oscar 
H. Elmer, Moorhead (also preaching at Fargo and other places in Dakota) ; 



EARLY HISTORY OF XORTH DAKOTA 619 

Francis W. Iddings, Grand Forks ; William Coit Stevens, Bismarck ; William 
Cobleigh (licentiate), Turtle River. 

In 1881, Rev. Donald G. McKay settled at Park River, supplying Sweden 
and Crystal in his field. Rev. J. F. Berry, from Forest River, supplied Minto 
and Inkster. Rev. R. J. Creswell was stationed at Pembina, installed by Revs. 
J. A.' Brown and J- P. Schell. Rev. William Cobleigh took up the work at 
Grafton and Rev. Rockwood McQueeton succeeded Rev. F. W. Iddings at Grand 
Forks, to be followed by Rev. H. H. Brownlee. 

The Grafton Church was organized in June, 1882, by Rev. F. W. Iddings, and 
in July, Rev. J. F. Berry began work at Garfield, Edinburgh and vicinity, and in 
August Rev. Daniel Willard at Bathgate. Rev. N. W. Gary succeeded Rev. H. 
H. Brownlee at Grand Forks in 1883, the latter going to Devil's Lake, relieving 
Rev. E. W. Day, who later was stationed many years at Fargo. Minto and 
Ardock were served by Revs. John Irwin and A. G. Forbes. In March, 1883, Rev. 
A. K. Caswell began work at Xeche, and Rev. J. A. Brown at Arvilla. In April 
Rev. Ransom Waite located at Beaulieu and Walhalla. Rev. Alexander Burr 
took up work at Park River and Mountview. 

In September, 1883, the church at Devil's Lake was organized by Revs. Irwin 
and Brownlee, and the church at Niagara by Rev. J. A. Brown, also the church 
at Milton by Rev. J. F. Berry. Rev. W. A. Smith took up work at New Rock- 
ford and A'linnewaukon. 

The Presbytery of Pembina met at Grafton, Nov. 7. 1883, having been 
called by Rev. Wm. Cobleigh to complete its organization. It consisted of mem- 
bers from thirty-three counties, extending from the Red River to the Montana 
line, and from the Manitoba line to the north lines of Traill, Steele and Griggs 
counties, and along that line to Montana. 

Rev. N. W. Gary preached the sermon. Rev. J. A. Brown was elected 
moderator and Rev. N. W. Gary, clerk. 

Steps were taken to promote the interests of the Presbyterian College by 
appointing Rev. F. W. Iddings, Rev. C. S. Converse, and Elder D. W. Lake as 
commissioners to meet those appointed by other Presbyteries. 

In October, 1882, the Presbyteries of Pembina, Grand Forks and Red River 
were created. On Oct. 13, 1883, the "Northern Pacific Presbytery" was created 
out of the Red River Presbytery. The Pembina Presbyter}' comprised all of the 
territory north of the latter. 

The Northern Pacific Presbytery comprised the south half of the state, as far 
west as the east lines of Emmons, Burleigh and McLean counties, about forty 
miles east of Bismarck; the new Presbytery of Bismarck, taking in all the other 
unclaimed and unexplored portion of the territory west to the Montana line, 
which four years later constituted the State of North Dakota. 

At the meeting of the Grand Forks Presbytery, at Grand Forks, April 26, 1881, 
Rev. W. C. Stevens and Elder J. Compton were elected commissioner and dele- 
gates to the General Assembly at Buffalo. A committee was appointed consisting 
of Prof. E. J. Thompson, Revs. F. W. Iddings and A. C. Underwood, and the 
Presbytery met July 18. 1882. to further consider the question of establishing a 
college. In the contest for the location of the college, Fargo, Fergus Falls and 
Casselton were the leading contestants, and the latter was selected, but on October 
31 1883, Jamestown was substituted. 



620 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

The following incorporators were appointed, viz. ; Wm. C. White, O. H. 
Hewitt and Rev. X. D. Fanning of Jamestown; R. S. Adams of Lisbon; D. H. 
Twomey, Fargo; L. B. Davidson, Bismarck; Rev. F. J. Thompson, Casselton ; 
Rev. F. W. Iddings, Grand Forks; \'. M. Kenney, Larimore, and T. E. Yerxa, 
Fargo. 

Special meetings were held in all the Presbyteries in August, 1885, for the 
purpose of appointing commissioners to meet at Jamestown and unite in effective 
eft'ort to put the Jamestown college in operation. The result was made manifest 
in a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the college, at which successful plans 
were laid for opening the school and erecting the present handsome building. 

The incorporators previously selected were: R. S. Adams, Lisbon; D. H. 
Twomey, Fargo; L. B. Davidson, Bismarck; Rev. E. J. Thompson, Casselton; 
Rev. F. W. Iddings, Grand Forks; V. AL Kenny, Larimore, and T. E. Yerxa, 
Fargo. 

The Bismarck Presbytery was constituted November 10th, 1884, at Mandan. 
Rev. Isaac Oliver Sloan was convener and acted as first moderator. Rev. R. H. 
Fulton was temporary clerk and Rev. John C. McKee was elected stated clerk. 

Special meetings were held by all three Presbyteries for the purpose of ap- 
pointing commissioners to meet at Jamestown and unite in eft'ective efforts to put 
the Jamestown College in operation with the result above stated. 

The Synod of North Dakota was created by the General Assembly, at its 
meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio, and held its first meeting in the First Presbyterian 
church in Fargo October 8, 1885, Rev. Francis M. Wood of the Synod of the 
Northern Pacific Presbytery, having been appointed by the General Assembly 
of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, to do so, presiding as moderator 
and preaching the sermon. Rev. Harlan G. Mendenhall was temporary clerk. 
The Presbyteries of Pembina, the Northern Pacific and Bismarck being united 
in constituting the same. The Bismarck Presbytery was represented by Rev. J. C. 
McKee and Rev. L. E. Danks was also enrolled. Northern Pacific Presbytery, 
Revs. C. W. McCarthy, F. M. Wood, D. E. Bierce, J. E. Yance, E. P. Foresman, 
E. W. Day, G. S. Baskervill, H. M. Dyckman, Q. L. Young, and Elders McCradie, 
O. H. Hewitt, J. Duncan, J. C. White, and C. E. Cole; Pembina Presbytery, Revs. 
John Scott, J. A. Brown, R. Waite, F. W. Iddings, N. W. Carey. C. S. Converse, 
"W. Mullins! W. Cobleigh, D. Williams and H. G. Mendenhall. Rev. F. W. 
Iddings was elected moderator. Rev. H. G. Mendenhall, stated clerk and treas- 
urer-; Rev. E. W. Day, permanent clerk; Rev. L. E. Danks, temporary clerk. 
Revs. R. A. Beard, William Ewing and H. C. Simmons, of the Congregational 
Association, S. W. Stevens of the Baptist Association, H. D. Ganse of the Synod 
of ^Missouri; H. C. Baskenill. of the Synod of Nebraska; J. H. Long, O. H. 
Elmer, J. R. Crum and J. P. Schell, of Synod of Minnesota, and W. H. Hunter 
of the Synod of Pennsylvania were invited to sit as corresponding members. 

The several "standing committees'' were appointed, among which Revs. L. E. 
Danks, J. E. \'^ance and W. Cobleigh were the temperance committee ; Revs. J. C. 
McKee, H. G. Mendenhall and G. S. Baskervill, the Home Mission committee ; 
Revs. M. W. Car)' and C. S. Converse and Elder J. R. Clark were the Sabbath 
School committee; Revs. D. E. Bierce, J. F. Berry and L. E. Danks. the Com- 
mittee on Education : Revs. F. W. Iddings, I. O. Sloan and H, M. Dyckman, 
Church Erection committee. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 621 

The women of the Synod organized a Synodical Missionary society, com- 
posed of the following: Bismarck Presbytery, Mesdames C. B. Austin, L. E. 
Danks, and C. H. Weaver; Fargo Presbytery, Mesdames F. M. Wood, F. W. 
Day, and M. J. Montgomery; Pembina Presbytery, Mesdames J. A. Brown, A. J. 
Goodall, D. Williams and George Bull. 

The Synod having received under its care and become responsible for James- 
town College and its interests, and the several Presbyteries having authorized the 
appointment by the Board of Trustees of a financial agent to raise at least $50,000 
for that institution, the Synod endorsed this action, and recommended said in- 
stitution to the Board of Aid to Colleges and Academies for the full amount 
applied for. Elder I. M. Adams of Grand Rapids was enrolled. Of the sixty- 
three churches of the synod, six were reported as "self-supporting." 

The following additional ministers were enrolled: Rev. Robert J. Feagles, 
Menoken; James W. Dickey, Keystone (Monango) ; C. W. Remington. Milnor; 
R. W. Ely, La Moure; Q. L. Young, Hunter; J. W. Cathcart, Dougald Mc- 
Gregor, Inkster; H. C. Baskervill, Pembina; W. H. Hunter, Minto, and the fol- 
lowing elders and Sunday School superintendents : Bismarck, G. H. Fairchild, J. 
W. Clark, C. H. Clague and Supt. C. S. Weaver; Glencoe, Alexander Campbell 
and Supt. Caleb Farr; Mandan, J. R. Clark, S. A. Hoke, A. R. Wingate and 
Supt. C. A. Heegaard ; Sims, J. Hansel, Supt. C. L. Zimmerman ; Stanton, Supt. 
S. C. Walker; Steele, D. D. McLennan and J. Bancroft; Sterling, Elder Adams 
and Supt. Bratton ; Taylor, J. H. Slack ; Victoria, Supt. Barton ; Washburn. H. S. 
Ramsett and Supt. C. F. Garrette : Ayr. William Aitchison. John Beatty ; Buffalo, 
W. T. Grieve and L. K. Rich, Supt. ; Casselton, Dr. H. J. Rowe, P. H. Houghton, 
J. C. White ; Elm River, Robert McCradie, John Falconer, Supt. James Mac- 
Andrew ; Fargo, Joshua Duncan, D. H. Twomey, Supt. E. H. Dickinson, E. B. 
Bruce, P. Picton, H. S. Coffin; Grand Rapids, E. G. Loring, L M. Adams, Russell 
Grover; Hillsboro, E. P. Foresman, Supt.; Hunter, Walter Muir, Henry Ruth- 
ruff, Rev. Q. L. Young, Supt. ; Jamestown, B. M. Hicks, Will H. Burke, F. M. 
Grove, H. B. Allen, O. H. Hewitt, Supt. B. W. Hicks; Keystone (Monango), 
Supt. Benjamin Porter ; Kelso, David Falconer, Supt. August Rosenkrantz ; 
La Moure, F. M. Kinter, C. P. Smith. Supt. : Lisbon, F. N. Norton, R. S. Adams, 
Supt. ; Mapleton, Aaron Howe, Robert D. Duff, Supt. ; Milnor, John Sherman, 
James H. Vail, J. D. McKenzie, Supt. ; McKinnon, Lyman Gray ; Page City, 
Wm. Whistnand, James Whistnand ; Sheldon. James Elliott. Wm. Smith, Charles 
E. Cole, R. G. Hillen, Supt.; Wheatland, T. C. Hall, R. B. McVey, D. Merchison, 
R. Harrold. Supt. ; Tower City, Dr. N. Engle, George F. Clark, R. P. Sherman, 
Supt. ; Arvilla, C. C. Colson., Thos. Sherley, H. D. Wood. Supt. ; Ardoch, Wm. 
Morrison, J. M. Montgomery, M. D., George Stevenson ; Alma, Isaac Halliday ; 
Bethel, Geo. Murdock, Joseph Dobie, George Kerby, Joseph Dobie, Supt. Tyner; 
Bathgate, A. G. Goodall, Duncan McKenzie. Peter McLeod : Bottineau. G. J. 
Cuthard, John Creig, Supt. ; Elkmont. Geo. Hislop. A. R. Freeborn, James Mc- 
Conache; Forest River, John C. Wilson. John Woods; Grand Forks, D. W. 
Luke, Supt. H. Higgins, W. E. Parsons; Grafton. Frank I. Ludden. W. Shum- 
way, Arch. M. Culley ; Greenwood, Nathan Stoughton, Supt. (Turtle River); 
Hamilton, John G. Lamb, Supt.. Thomas Dow, Alex. Rippen ; Hyde Park, Owen 
McOuinn, David Best, H. C. L. Neilson ; Inkster, Thomas Casement. John Mc- 
Larty, T. W. Kernaghan. R. B. Montgomery ; Knox, Archibald Miller, Donald 



622 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

McConnell, Rev. W. H. Hunter, Supt. ; Lariniore, V. M. Kenney, J. F. Stevens, 
George Krouse, Prof. Stanton, Supt. ; Meckinock, Ebenezer Smith, B. F. Warren, 
John M. Smith, Supt.; (Arvilla) Neche, John Thompson, Supt.; Osnabrook, 
David Black, Sr., Rev. J. F. Berry, Supt. ; Pembina, David Dick, Patrick Ahem, 
Supt. ; W'alhalla, George Campbell ; Westminster, Devils Lake. Thompson 
Walker, LaFayette Palmer, Rev. C. S. Converse, Superintendent. 

Jamestown College was organized September 28, 1886, by the election of O. H. 
Hewitt, secretary of the Board of Trustees consisting of Rev. B. W. Cobleigh, 
Elders T. E. Yerxa and C. S. Weaver, when the Board of Aid for Colleges, upon 
request of the Northern Pacific Presbytery, the institution having been duly 
incorporated and chartered, received Jamestown College under its care. It was 
also received under the control and management of the Synod. 

Rev. F. M. Wood was unanimously recommended for appointment as Synod- 
ical Missionary. Rev. N. W. Cary was appointed to compile the facts to be 
given in the historical addresses and to place them in a permanent form for 
record. A very pleasant social evening was given by Rev. and Mrs. Cary to the 
members of the Synod. The Synod heard with great pleasure a report from Rev. 
N. W. Cary regarding the Fargo Young Ladies' Seminary, which he had estab- 
lished in the gateway city, heartily approved of the same and commended him and 
his school to the churches. 

Rev. Francis Martin Wood was born at Fairton, Cumberland County, New 
Jersey, June 23, 1834. As a young man he engaged in business in Galveston, 
Texas. He graduated from Princeton College in 1858; from the Seminary in 
1861, and was married to Martha G. Van Tuyl, of Carlisle, Ohio, in 1862, and 
became pastor of the New Jersey church of Carlisle that year. He served 
churches in Clifton, Ohio; Marshall, Mich.; San Francisco, Cal. ; Oxford and 
Xenia, Ohio, from 1870-1883. Rev. Mr. Wood came to Dakota Territory in 1883, 
supplying the new churches at La Moure and Grand Rapids while residing with 
his family on a homestead south of the former place. In 1884 he was appointed 
Presbyterial Missionary and from 1885 until 1897 was the Synodical Missionary, 
after which he entered upon foreign missionary work as assistant superintendent 
of the mission institute founded by Rev. Andrew Murray, at Wellington, Cape 
Colony, Africa, and also ministered to the church there, being associated with his 
son Clifton, who was one of the first students at Jamestown College, North Dakota, 
in preparation for the work of a foreign missionary. He was a worthy representa- 
tive of the young college and state in that "far off land." He died April 11. 1914, 
at Carlisle, Ohio. He was one of the chief promoters in the establishment and 
early development of Jamestown College, consisting of six buildings, now recog- 
nized as a "standard institution of Christian learning," and has financial assets 
amounting to over five hundred thousand dollars and an additional endowment of 
three hundred thousand dollars. 

The second annual meeting of the Synod assembled at Jamestown, October 
8, 1886, Rev. H. G. Mendenhall preaching the sermon. Rev. F. M. Wood con- 
stituting the Synod by prayer. Rev. C. B. Austin of Bismarck Presbytery was 
elected moderator. Rev. N. W. Cary of Fargo, permanent clerk. Rev. J. A. Bald- 
ridge, temporary clerk. 

The following ministers were reported: Revs. W. T. Gibson, Sterling and 
Steele ; D. C. Wilson, Milnor and vicinity ; B. Lyman, Mapleton and Durbin ; 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 623 

J. B. \'ance, Keystone; J. A. Baldridge, Larimore ; E. B. Taylor, Minnewaukan ; 
R. H. Fulton, Park River; A. G. Forbes, St. Andrew and Lincoln. 

This year the following churches were enrolled: West Park, i6 members; 
Mount View, ii members; Edmunds, ii members; Durbin, 19 members; Dick- 
inson, 14 members; Mount Zion, 14 members; St. Andrew, 21 members; Lincoln, 
10 members; Gilby, 10 members. Total, 147 members. 

Churches have been built as follows: Bismarck, costing over $10,000; Glen- 
coe. Sterling, Milner, Buf¥alo, Sheldon, Arvilla, Inkster, Minnewaukan, Park 
River and Minot, ranging in cost from $1,500 to $3,000. Total value about 
thirty thousand dollars. 

The church at Steele was totally destroyed by storm July 3, 1886; that of 
Keystone was damaged $800, and the church at La Moure was demolished August 
16, 1886. Total, seventy churches, six self-sustaining: sixty-four mission 
churches, thirty-four ministers. 2,000 members, church property valued at about 
one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. Rev. H. G. Mendenhall reported 
for the Home Alission committee that $500 had been contributed by the churches 
to the board, an increase of $136. 

Rev. N. D. Fanning, president of the trustees of Jamestown College, reported 
that a board of nine trustees had been appointed, all of whom were Presby- 
terians, viz. : Hon. D. H. Twomey and T. E. Yerxa of Fargo, L. B. Davidson 
of Bismarck, R. S. Adams of Lisbon, G. O. Grover of La Moure, V. M. Kenney 
of Larimore, Rev. F. W. Iddings of Grand Forks, and O. H. Hewitt and Rev. 
N. D. Fanning of Jamestown. 

The officers were: President, Rev. X. D. Fanning; secretary, O. H. Hewitt; 
treasurer, Wm. M. Lloyd, Jr. ; executive committee, T. E. Yerxa, O. H. Hewitt 
and N. D. Fanning. A financial secretary has been appHDinted, Rev. R. J. Cress- 
well of Minneapolis, to work in three Presbyteries in Ohio, Cleveland, Dayton 
and Columbus. Temporary rooms had been secured and Prof. N. M. Crowe and 
wife, of Butler, Pa., secured to take charge of the preparatory department. 
\'igorous action was taken by the Synod for the integrity of the Sabbath and ihe 
enforcement of the prohibition law. 

The Synod met in Grand Forks, October 13, 1887. Rev. Charles B. Austin 
of Bismarck preached, Rev. G. S. Baskervill conducted the devotional service. 
Rev. N. W. Cary was elected moderator, and Rev. W. H. Hunter, temporary 
clerk. Rev. ]. F. Berry read an interesting historical sketch of Pembina Pres- 
bytery. 

The following organizations were reported : Sanborn church, organized 
January 23; Rutland, April 17; Binghampton, May 22; Blanchard, June 5: 
Galesburg, July 24; Pickert, August 21; Oakes. August 28; Minot, March 27; 
Webster Chapel, September 1 1 ; Glasston, October 9. New ministers enrolled : 
Revs. W. H. Snyder, Mandan ; Charles McLean, Pembina ; J. Osmond, Botti- 
neau : W. H. McCluskey, Dickinson. Licentiates, William T. Parsons, Boynton ; 
W. C. Whistnand. Colgate; D. J. McKenzie, Milnor ; S. J. Webb, Wild Rice. 
Students, J. C. Howell, Alex. McLeod, W. M. Langdon, William C. Gibson. 
Elder H. B. Allen of Jamestown was enrolled. 

Churches dedicated : Sterling, Sheldon and La Moure. Churches being 
erected were Emerado. Bottineau. Steele and Hunter. The churches at Lari- 



624 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

more, Wheatland and Bathgate provided manses, there being then eighty churches 
in the Synod, seven self-supporting fields, forty ministers, including licentiates, 
thirty-seven church buildings, and ten more projected. 

In view of the demoralizing influence of the liquor traffic the Synod earnestly 
called upon its membership to take a stand ujwn the word of God and faithfully 
do their duty in uprooting this great evil. It commended the work of the Wom- 
en's Christian Temperance Union. A popular meeting was held. Rev. Edgar W. 
Day presiding, addressed by Rev. N. D. Fanning of Jamestown and Mrs. Helen 
M. Barker of Chamberlain, South Dakota. 

A committee was appointed to co-operate with the Women's Missionary 
Society in the matter of erecting and dedicating a monument at Walhalla to the 
memory of the martyred Mesdames Spencer and Barnard, consisting of the 
Revs. J. P. Schell, H. G. :\Iendenhall, W. H. Hunter, John Scott and E. W. Bay, 
June, 1888, being the date named. 

The Synod met in Bismarck, October 11, 1888, Rev. J. C. Quinn, of Minot. 
preaching. New ministers and elders were enrolled as follows : Revs. R. H. 
Wallace, Edgar C. Dayton, W. O. Tobey, Granville R. Pike, George Furness, 
Samuel Andrews, G. H. Hemmingway, B. Lyman, Robert "McGoudie. Elder 
George Fairbanks was also enrolled. 

Rev. W. H. Hunter was elected moderator and Rev. J. C. Quinn temporary 
clerk. Rev. George Klein, of the North Dakota Baptist Association, and Rev. 
J. B. Hobart, of the Presbytery of Cleveland, Ohio, were invited to sit as cori^- 
sponding members. 

The fifth annual meeting of the Synod assembled in Fargo on October to, 
1889, Rev. J. A. Baldridge, of Larimore, preaching the sermon from John 6:63. 
The following were among the new ministers and elders enrolled : Revs. James 
M. Anderson, B. W. Coe, Wm. Sangree, J. C. Linton, H. McHenry, W. D. Rees, 
and Elder J. C. White, of Casselton. Rev. G. Sumner Baskervill was elected 
moderator and Rev. J. P. Schell temporary clerk. The Revs. V. N. Yergin, of 
the Congregational Association. W. A. Kingsbury, of the General Council of the 
Lutheran Church, and Rev. J. S. Boyd, of the Synod of Minnesota, were invited 
to sit as corresponding members. 

A proposition was submitted by Re\-. F. \\'. Iddings for publishing a paper 
at Grand Forks, in the interest of the Synod which was accepted and an editorial 
committee consisting of Revs. J. P. Schell. W. T. Parsons, J. T. Killen and J. M. 
Anderson was appointed, and the North Dakota Presbytery was selected October 
8, 1889. 

At this meeting a report of the committee commending the work of the Sun- 
day school missionary. Eben E. Saunders, was adopted. 

Rev. Eben E. Saunders, ordained as a Congregationalist, came to North Dakota 
from Saginaw, Mich., September r. 1888. as Synodical Sabbath school mission- 
ary. He was the first secretary of the State Sunday School Association, the first 
secretary of the State Enforcement League, first chairman of the prohibition 
state committee, and editor of the first prohibition papers. The "Independent" at 
Grand Forks, and Independent Dakotan. at Jamestown, and later editor and 
publisher of other publications, always working on uplift lines. He has also 
been engaged in historical research, contributing a large number of historical 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 625 

letters to the press, and to him. the author is very largely indebted for the data 
from which this chapter was prepared. 

THE M.\RTYRS OF ST. JOSEPH 

In 1849, Reverend James Tanner, a son of John Tanner, who had previously 
served as an interpreter to the missionaries in Minnesota, visited a brother resid- 
ing at Pembina, and becoming deeply interested in the spiritual condition of the 
Indians, made a tour of the east in their behalf, visiting Washington and other 
cities. 

He became connected with the Baptist Church, and returned to St. Joe — a 
trading post in the Pembina mountains, and at an early day a village cjuite as 
important as Pembina — in 1852, accompanied by Elijah Terry, for the purpose 
of opening a mission among the Indians and half-bloods at that point, but before 
the summer ended Terry was waylaid by the Sioux, shot to death with many 
arrows and scalped. He was buried in the Catholic cemeteiy at St. Joe. 

June I, 1853, another small band of missionaries, consisting of the Revs. 
Alonzo Barnard, David Brainard Spencer, their families, and John Smith, of 
Ohio, arrived at St. Joe. For ten years they had labored among the Chippewas 
in Minnesota at Cass Lake and Red Lake, Under the auspices of the American 
Missionary Board. 

Mrs. Barnard's health having failed, she was moved to the Selkirk settle- 
ment, where she died October 25, 1852, her husband being compelled, on account 
of their isolation, to conduct the funeral service himself. Her remains were 
'emoved to St. Joe, where they were interred in the yard of the humble mission 
cabin. 

In 1854, Mr. Barnard went east to find a home for his children, and on the 
way back met Mr. Spencer with his motherless children, their mother having 
been murdered by the Indians and her remains buried by the side of his co-work- 
er's faithful wife. 

The story of the second grave is written in blood. It was early in 1854, 
and hostile Sioux then infested the Pembina region. 

Mrs. Spencer, rising in the night to care for her sick babe, heard a noise at 
the window, and drawing the curtain to discover the cause, received the fire of 
three Indians who stood there with loaded guns and fired upon being discovered. 
Three balls took effect, one in her breast and two in her throat. She neither cried 
out nor fell, but reeling to the bed, with her infant still in her arms, knelt there, 
where she was soon found by her husband. She lingered several hours before 
she died. 

When the neighbors came in the morning they beheld a most distressing scene. 
Mr. Spencer sat as if in a dream, holding his dead wife in his arms. The poor 
babe lay on his rude cradle, his clothes saturated with his mother's blood, the two 
other children standing by, terrified and weeping. 

The friendly half-bloods came in and cared for the children, and prepared the 
dead mother for burial. A half-blood dug the grave, and nailed together a rude 
box for a coffin. Then in broken accents, with a bleeding heart, the poor man 
consigned to the friendly earth the remains of his murdered wife. 



626 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

THE MONUMENT ' 

June 21, i8S8, one of the most interesting incidents in the history of North 
Dakota took place at the new Presbyterian cemetery, picturesquely situated on 
the brow of the mountain overlooking Walhalla, formerly known as St. Joseph or 
St. Joe. 

It was the day appointed by the Ladies' Synodical Missionary Society, of 
North Dakota, for the unveiling of the monument which they had erected to the 
memory of Sarah Philena Barnard and Cordelia .Spencer, pioneer missionaries to 
the Indians of the Pembina region. 

The monument is a beautiful and appropriate one, of pure white marble. 

The broken pieces of the old stone placed on !Mrs. Barnard's grave, long ago 
scattered and lost, were recovered, cemented together, re-lettered, and placed upon 
the new grave. The venerable Mr. Barnard, then eighty-three years of age, living 
at Banzonia, Mich., was present, accompanied by his daughter. Standing upon the 
grave of his martyred wife and Mrs. Spencer, with tremulous voice and moistened 
eyes, he gave to the assembled multitude a history of their early missionary toil, 
in the abodes of savagery. Among those present were the half-blood women who 
prepared Mrs. Spencer's body for burial and washed the babe after its baptism in 
his mother's blood. 

OTHER DENGMIN.^TIONS 

Dr. Jared W. Daniels was the first Episcopal clergyman engaged in Indian 
work in North Dakota, appointed through the Right Reverend Henry B. Whipple, 
Bishop of Minnesota. The late Bishop Robert Clarkson, Bishop of Nebraska, 
assisted by Rev. M. U. Hoyt and Rev. S. D. Hinman, in charge of the Indian 
agencies, established the church in South Dakota, building in 1865 an edifice at 
Yankton. Under the charge of Bishop Clarkson the early churches at Bismarck, 
Fargo, \'alley City, Jamestown, Grand Forks and Devils Lake were organized. 
He was followed by Right Reverend William D. Walker, and he by Bishops Mor- 
rison, Edsall, Mann and Tyler, each doing excellent work. 

Rev. Robert Wainright was the first Episcopal clergyman stationed in North 
Dakota, and was a resident of Fargo for a number of years with his family. Mr. 
Wainright came to North Dakota from the lower coast of Labrador, where he had 
been for some years laboring among the Indians and seal hunters, and was well 
prepared to endure the hardships of travel in North Dakota during the winter 
season. All of North Dakota was his parish and Mr. Wainright was expected to 
visit all parts of his parish at least twice during the summer and once during the 
winter. There were absolutely no roads outside of the single stage line to \\'innipeg, 
and the United States military trails from 'one fort to another. The Northern 
Pacific, after it was built only operated the road during the summer months west 
of Fargo, and travel during the winter was at the risk of life, and subject to dis- 
comforts the present residents of our state cannot conceive and could not believe 
if 'told. Mr. Wainright in Decembei^ would start on a trip over 'the snow- 
covered prairies that before his return to Fargo would necessitate his traveling 
upwards of one thousand miles, taking in Grand Forks, Fort Pembina, Pem- 
bina, Fort Totten, Buford, Lincoln, Rice, Seward, \'alley City, and other 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 627 

small settlements and single houses. He was once heard of after a long absence 
well up towards the Turtle Mountains, and on his return was asked how he hap- 
pened to be as far north of the trail from Pembina to Devils Lake. "Oh," says Mr. 
Wainright, "I heard of a church family up there and thought I would go and bap- 
tize the babies." At another time between Bismarck and Fort Seward the trail was 
lost and the party spent two days and one night with no fire, and but little to eat. 
They at last found the telegraph poles that marked the line of the snowed-up 
Northern Pacific railroad and followed the line into Jamestown. From that point to 
Fargo, Captain Patterson, of Fort Seward, furnished an ambulance, four mules, 
and two soldiers as an escort. The ambulance had a stove in it and enough fuel 
was carried to keep a little fire going, and with one soldier in the saddle to whack 
the mules and one to build the fires, Mr. Wainright said he felt as if missionarying 
in North Dakota was a delightful occupation. 

He was a broad-minded, liberal-hearted man and was loved and respected by 
all classes and denominations. When Custer fell, and the boat load of wounded 
arrived at Fort Lincoln, Mr. Wainright was one of the first to offer his services as 
assistant in the hospital, and did valuable service there. He delivered the first 
series of lectures in the dining room of the old Headquarters Hotel in Fargo, for 
the benefit of the Fargo Church. The lectures were mostly on Labrador and its 
people. A dog sledge and a forty-foot whip was used to show how missionaries 
traveled in Labrador. Mr. Wainright was an expert with the whip and we have 
seen him stand forty feet from a glass filled with water and, with his forty-foot 
lash he would flick the water out of the glass without upsetting it. 

Rev. Hugh L. Burleson was later stationed at Fargo, and his four brothers 
were engaged in church work at Grand Forks and other points in the state. Their 
father was a prominent Episcopal minister residing at Faribault. Minn., some 
years, and later engaged in church work among the Indians in Wisconsin. 

The Congregationalists, through Rev. H. N. Gates, were very early in the field, 
establishing schools and Sunday schools in 1872 at Wahpeton, Fargo, Grand Forks 
and at the construction camps on the extension of the Northern Pacific Railroad. 

The activities of the early Methodists are related in a previous chapter. The 
work of the Baptists, Lutherans and other denominations can not be given with 
that degree of accuracy to which they are entitled and must be omitted. 

The German Baptists formed colonies which came in by train loads through 
the activities of the Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railroads, locating prin- 
cipally in Foster, Eddy, Ramsey, Towner, Rolette and Bottineau counties, Max 
Bass, of the Great Northern Railroad, devoting the best part of his life to the 
organization and welfare of these colonies in which the late James J. Hill took a 
special interest, authorizing the construction of branch lines of railroad in the 
northern part of the state about every fifty miles, as the free lands became occu- 
pied by them. 

All denominations have contributed their strength for the uplift of men, and 
in making the state one of the strongest and best, particularly from the moral 
standpoint, in this Great Republic. Of one thing all may be certain ; there are no 
treason-breeding spots in the church organization of this country. 



CHAPTER XLI 
ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOL LAND SYSTEM 

GENERAL WILLIAM H. H. BEADLE, THE SCHOOL LAND PROTECTOR — A WELL DESERVED 

TRIBUTE — THE SCHOOL FUNDS — LANDS FOR PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS THE COAL 

LANDS A PERPETUAL HERITAGE — A LAST WORD THE NATIONAL UNITY LEAGUE — 

AN AMERICAN CREED IMPORTANCE OF PARTY ORGANIZATION — THE FLAG SALUTE 

— CONCLUSION. 

" 'Tis education forms the common mind. 
Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined." 
— Alexander Pope. Moral Essays. 

ORIGIN OF THE SCH(X)L-LAND SYSTEM 

The idea of assigning a constant share of all United States pubHc lands, for the 
support of free education, wherever the public domain might extend beyond the 
limits of the original states, was first engrafted upon this nation, by our Revolu- 
tionary forefathers, in the general ordinance for public surveys, passed by Con- 
gress May 20, 1785; this great statute devoting section 16 in each township "for 
the maintenance of public schools within the said township." 

This original benefaction for education was doubled for the Dakotas and some 
other states, by subsequent legislation adding section 36, thus granting one- 
eighteenth of the lands surveyed ; and in the newer states of Utah, New Mexico, 
Oklahoma and Arizona, Congress granted school selection in certain sections 
additional to the original two. 

It was known, through the unfortunate experience of various new regions, that 
school sections were the peculiar prey of designing parties who could manipulate 
legislatures and authorities, thereby securing to other interests the lands which 
the people supposed to be [irotected for future education; but which the educator 
often found to have been squandered for selfish schemes. 

BEADLE, THE PROTECTOR 

One man, appointed Territorial Superintendent of Public Instruction, Gen. 
William H. H. Beadle, saw his duty in the case and accepted its labors and respon- 
sibilities. He was fully awake to this constant menace, and he made vigorous 
campaigns throtigh the territory to reach the people and rouse a determination to 
protect the common-school fund by a fundamental law in the Constitution, before 
impending statehood might encourage political magnates to loot the school lands. 

In 1889, his hour of triumph came. Tliough he was not a delegate to the 

628 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 629 

Constitutional Convention for South Dakota, he was chosen to write the para- 
graphs covering his favorite topic, and prohibiting the sale of a single acre of 
school land for less than ten dollars ; with other provisions for securing fair value 
in each sale, and for guarding the state fund from impairment or loss. 

North Dakota adopted the same safeguards, and no part of our Union is more 
generously supplied with school support. In the other territories, since admitted 
as states, Congress has taken care to embody the Beadle plan, or some efficient 
modification thereof. 

THE MARBLE STATUE 

In 1910, the love of a grateful school population of his state, was proved by a 
public testimonial, providing by subscriptions and small contributions at "Beadle- 
day" gatherings, a fund of $10,000 for a marble statue of the protector. This 
was soon erected and unveiled in the State Capitol at Pierre, S. D., with honors 
appropriate to his eminent services to his state and his country, and bearing the 
inscription : 

"He Saved the School Lands". 

In 1857, young Beadle went from an Indiana farm to Michigan University. 
From graduation, he promptly went into the Civil War, where years of active 
service earned his title of brevet brigadier general. For nearly forty years more, 
he gave his talents to the public interests of Dakota, especially as president of her 
first Normal School, after first being Surveyor General and Superintendent of 
Public Instruction. Only one other distinguished American leader of educational 
progress has been thus honored by a statue while living, namely, Horace Mann, 
of Boston. 

The provision for $10 per acre gave the state over $15,000,000; and none 
of the lands can be sold for less than that sum. Some have been sold at upwards 
of fifty dollars per acre, and much of it at more than double the limit fixed. All 
of the money arising from the sale of school lands must be invested in bonds of 
school corporations of the state, in bonds of the United States, bonds of the State 
of North Dakota, or in first mortgage bonds on farm lands in the state, not exceed- 
ing in amount one-third of the actual value of any subdivisions on which the same 
may be loaned, such value to be determined by the board of appraisers of school 
lands. 

The fund arising from the sale of school lands must be treated as a permanent 
fund, and only the income appropriated for the maintenance of the schools. The 
latter is apportioned to the school corporations of the state in proportion to the 
attendance in the public schools. The percentum granted to the state from the 
sale of public lands by the United States ; the proceeds of property that shall fall 
to the state, by escheat ; the proceeds of all gifts that may be donated to the state, 
not otherwise appropriated by the terms of the gifts or donations; these and all 
other property otherwise acquired, must remain a part of the permanent school 
fund, which can never be diminished, and the state is required to make good all 
losses. If any of the interest remains unexpended during any year, that, too, must 
go into the permanent school fund. 



630 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

'Various efforts were made in the early days of statehood, to reduce the price 
of the lands, especially in the grazing regions of the state, i)ut all failed, thanks to 
the vigilance of the people; but provision was made for the leasing of lands for 
hay and grazing, where there was no immediate prospect for sale at the price fixed ; 
but none of the public school lands were allowed to be cultivated. Where settle- 
ment was made on unsurveyed school lands, the state was granted lieu lands ; and 
when reservations were opened to settlement the state was allowed first choice of 
lands so opened, to cover the loss of school lands within such reservations or 
otherwise. 

Other lands were granted to the state for Agricultural College, Normal Schools, 
an Industrial School, School of Forestry, School of Mines, Capitol, Penitentiary, 
Hospital for the Insane, schools for the Deaf and Blind, Soldiers' Home, and other 
purposes, aggregating 750,000 acres. These, too, were guarded by similar pro- 
vision, proving that the Congress, the Constitutional Convention, the Legislative 
Assembly, and the people, were on the alert to protect their heritage derived from 
the General Government. 

The coal lands, however, aggregating many thousands of acres in the western 
part of the state, which fell within the grants to the state, can never be sold ; 
they can only be leased, and the proceeds arising from such leasing go into the 
school fund ; also all fines for the violation of any state law. 

A LAST WORD 

In these days of new parties, new patriotic organizations and a world-wide war, 
the New League for National Unity, organized at Washington October 8, 191 7, 
appeals to the writer of these pages as being timely. Its principles are admirably 
stated as follows : 

"In an hour when our nation is fighting for the principles upon which it was 
founded, in an hour when free institutions and the hopes of humanity are at stake, 
we hold it the duty of every American to take his place on the firing line of pub- 
lic opinion. 

"It is not a time for old prejudices or academic discussion as to past differ- 
ences. Those who are not for America are against America. 

"Our cause is just. We took up the sword only when international law and 
ancient rights were set at naught, and when our forbearance had been exhausted 
by persistent deception and broken pledges. 

"Our aims are explicit, our purposes unspoiled by any selfishness. We defend 
the sanctities of life, the fundamental decencies of civilization. We fight for a 
just and durable peace and that the rule of reason shall be restored to the com- 
munity of nations. 

"In this crisis the unity of the American people must not be impaired by the 
voices of dissension and sedition. 

"Agitation for a premature peace is seditious when its object is to weaken 
the determination of America to see the war through to a conclusive vindication 
of the principles for which we have taken arms. 

"The war we are waging, is a war against war, and its sacrifices must not be 
nullified by any truce or armistice that means no more than a breathing-spell for 
the enemy. 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 631 

"We believe in the wise purpose of the President not to negotiate a peace with 
any irresponsible and autocratic dynasty. 

APPROVE SENDING TROOPS 

"We approve the action of the national government in dispatching an expedi- 
tionary force to the land of Lafayette and Rochambeau. Either we fight the 
enemy on foreign soil, shoulder to shoulder with comrades in arms, or we fight 
on our own soil, backs against our homes — and alone. 

"While this war lasts, the cause of the allies is our cause, their defeat our 
defeat, and concert of action and unity of spirit between them and us is essential 
to final victory. We, therefore, deprecate the exaggeration of old national preju- 
dices — often stimulated by Gennan propaganda — and nothing is more important 
than the clear understanding that those who in this present crisis attack our allies, 
attack America. 

"We are organized in the interests of a national accord, that rises above any 
previous division of party, race, creed and circumstances. 

"We believe that this is the critical and fateful hour for America and for civili- 
zation. To lose now is to lose for many generations. The peril is great and 
requires our highest endeavors. If defeat comes to us through any weakness, Ger- 
many, whose purpose for world dominion is now revealed, might draw to itself, 
as a magnet does the filings, the residuum of world power, and this would affect 
the standing and the independence of America. 

PLEDGE SUPPORT TO END 

"We not only accept but heartily approve the decision reached by the Presi- 
dent and Congress of the United States to declare war against the common enemy 
of the free nations, and, as loyal citizens of the L^nited States, we pledge to the 
President and the Government our undivided support to the very end." 

The following from The Outlook is commended to the liberty-loving people of 
our country. It is a platform on which all true Americans may stand, broad 
enough to comprehend all : 

AN AMERICAN CREED 

I am an American. 

I believe in the dignity of labor, the sanctity of the home and the high destiny 
of democracy. 

Courage is my birthright, justice my ideal and faith in humanity my guiding 
star. 

By the sacrifice of those who sufl^ered that I might live, who died that America 
might endure, I pledge my life to my countr)- and the liberation of mankind. 

NECESSITY FOR PARTY ORGANIZATION 

While there should be no division in purpose to maintain the principles upon 
which our Government is founded : "That all men are created equal ; that they 



632 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among these are 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments 
are instituted among men. deriving their just powers from the consent of the 
governed," as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, there is need of 
"eternal vigilance, the condition upon which God hath given liberty to man," and 
this can be promoted by party organizations where each shall act as a check upon 
the other, all having the public good in view. 

In 1892, the author said in the Fargo Argus : 

"I can conceive of circumstances where it is not only right to scratch, but it 
may be justifiable to vote for the opposition candidate, but this should be done 
only when it is necessary to suppress ring politics and teach a lesson which will not 
soon be forgotten. 

"Two parties are essential to good government, for only through contention 
can the right most certainly prevail. When the great majority rule and the 
minority have sunk into 'innocuous desuetude' through lack of interest or the 
overwhelming power of corrupt methods, good government cannot long survive. 
No matter how pure the purposes of the central organization may be, when there 
is no longer opposition in the branches disease and corruption may creep in, and 
can only be prevented from gaining the supremacy by keeping alive the opposition. 

"One of the great parties should live to correct the errors of the other. There 
is no democrat so good, so pure, so able, that there is not a republican who is his 
equal, and if the party fails to nominate him, the party will surely suffer; or if it 
fails to do right by the people, the people will set it right in the next contest either 
by the nomination of a better man or his defeat at the polls. 

"Corruption in politics cannot survive where both parties are ec|ually intent on 
proving that they are faithful, and worthy to be trusted with the affairs of govern- 
ment, and it ought to be a source of pride to a man, that he is a democrat or a 
republican or a populist, as the case may be, and he ought to be able to give a 
reason for the faith that is in him. It is related of John Randolph, that as he 
called the name of a bitter personal enemy, who had been placed on his party 
ticket, (they voted viva voce then in his state), the gentleman named rushed to him 
and extended his hand. Randolph refused it and said : 'You are not my friend.' 
'Then why did you vote for me?' 'I voted for my party and for its principles,' 
Randolph replied. 

"No such sentiment has found a resting-place in democratic hearts in North 
Dakota, I assert, and I am sure that Capt. Dan Maratta, chairman of the demo- 
cratic state committee, will bear me out in the assertion, that there has never been 
a corrupt deal in the politics of the state, territory, county or city at Bismarck, 
that democrats were not among the leading factors in it. In the local politics, it 
was never possible to post up a democratic ticket and fight for it on principle, 
with any hope of carrying even a majority ofthose who claimed to be democrats. 
At the polls, they were strikers for ring methods and ring candidates, hireling 
workers for the spoils of office. Sometimes the ticket was labeled republican, 
sometimes democratic and sometimes independent, but the ring ticket always had 
the same names on it, the same supporters at the polls, and usually accomplished 
the same results. Republicans tried to organize the republican party and hold it 
together for purer and better politics. Maratta and Gray and a few others tried 



EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 633 

to secure organization of the democratic party with the same object in view, but 
it could not be done. And why? Because the parties throughout the territory 
were not organized with a view to contentions for principles. Men were doing 
just what the //erraW advised them to do, viz. : voting for their personal interests 
instead of for the public good. 

"And when it came to legislative affairs, as the democrats had no principles to 
sustain, no party purposes to accomplish, the democratic contingent became simply 
a recruiting camp for votes for corrupt deals, though they were not all corrupt. 
The majority of them had their glasses out, and they were turned here and there 
in search of some personal advantage, and whenever the band wagon came along, 
and it did not make any difference to them whether it was labeled democratic or 
republican so it was a sure enough band wagon, they bade good bye to their princi- 
ples, tumbled their candidates into the mud and scrambled on, happy in the thought 
that they had accomplished something for themselves. 

"It ought to be a reproach to a man to vote on an opposition ticket except to 
correct some great wrong. It ought to be cause for defeat when one on a repub- 
lican or democratic ticket seeks for the endorsement of the opposition. In the old 
states, where party pride is at par, one would be removed from a ticket, should he 
seek thus to advance himself above his fellows. He simply becomes a neutral, and 
is a load rather than a help to the ticket. The motives of those who scratch, are 
also closely scrutinized, and personal interests are never recognized as a good 
reason for betraying the party. 

"The motives of the democratic electors generally are as pure as those of any 
other class, but until there is organization and pride in organization, and an honest 
contention for party principles the democratic party can not be a factor for good 
in this state. In the present campaign they have given up all the ground they have 
ever gained. They have gone out of business. They have made it impossible for 
a single democrat in North Dakota to vote for Grover Cleveland, or for the prin- 
ciples which are supposed to be dear to every democratic heart. They have robbed 
Judge O'Brien, of the strength and enthusiasm of democratic associates on a state 
and national ticket, and have left him to contend alone, and are out on a sneak for 
a United States senatorship, which they can never gain, unless republicans forget 
their duty to the nation in their contention for personal interests. The United 
States Senate has five republican majority. The democratic gerrymander in New 
York sustained elects a democrat in place of Hiscock. Wisconsin is now reaching 
its third gerrymander, the other two having been knocked out by the courts, in 
order to defeat Sawyer, and the loss of a republican senator in North Dakota, will 
give the Senate to the democrats. Misguided indeed must be the republican heart 
which will sacrifice republican principles and republican supremacy for purely 
personal interests. Don't do it. Stand by your party, and by its principles, and 
do your reforming within party lines." 

In the present day there may be need of a third party to prevent or take 
advantage of party demoralization ; and if that party stands on the broad princi- 
ples of the proposed American Creed, it will stand for God and country and for 
the United States flag; and every man in it, if he be a true American, will be ready 
to salute its folds with the spoken vow first suggested by Colonel George F. Balch 
in 1891, for use in the public schools of New York, adopted by the American Flag 



634 EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Association, by the Grand Army of the Republic and all patriotic bodies, exacted 
in the Army and Navy and fervently uttered by the millions in the public schools. 

"I pledge allegiance to my Flag, and to the 

Republic for which it stands; 

One Nation, indivisible; 

With Liberty and Justice for all." 

CONCLUSION 

This work represents research of nearly thirty years. The limit of time and 
space has been reached. From a mass of rare and precious historic material, the 
chief gems have been selected and offered in concise form. To the remainder, 
still rich in future value, I must bid adieu. 
February 2"^, 1919. The Author. 



INDEX 



Adams, I. C, first church organizer, viii 
Adams, Rev. Moses N. Indian agent and 

missionary, 247, 248, 284, 327 
Administration, U. S. opposed to Division of 

Dakota, 374 
Admission to Union, four new states, 375 
Agard, Louis, pioneer and interpreter, 235 
Agricultural experiment farm at Mandan, 

436 
Ah-Kee-pah's rebuke, Minnesota massacre, 

Albright, Samuel L., Sioux Falls, pioneer and 

editor, 211-215 
Allen, Alvaren, Minnesota Stage Co. and 

Red River mail, 352 
Allen, James M., Sioux Falls, pioneer, 217- 

222, 279, 280 
Allin, Roger, Gov., state financial troubles, 

428 
Alsop Bros, and steamer "Alsop", 155 
Amendments to Constitution — twenty (20), 

415 

American Board of Foreign Missions — ac- 
tivities among the Sioux, 247 

American Flag — story of, 25-57 

American Fur Company, 156, 158, 162-3, 167- 
8, 170, 172, 178-9, 181, 186, 195 

.American traders, claims against the Sioux, 
192-195 

.^midon, Beulah, Saka-Ka-wea statue, 75 

Amidon, father and son, Sioux massacre vic- 
tims, 207, 2:6, 217, 222 

.Amidon, Judge Charles F., comment on codes 
of Dakota, 448 

Anderson, Capt. Joseph, frontier freighter, 
202 

"."Anson Northup" steamer first on Red River, 

154 
Apportionment for legislature, 403 
.Apple Creek and battle of, 236-291-293-294- 

295 
.Archambault Louis, pioneer Missouri River, 

235 
.Arikara Villages, 60, 61, 76, 160, 163, 167, 

177 
-Armstrong, Moses K., pioneer, surveyor, 

legislator, delegate to congress, 227, 228-g, 

238, 263, 279, 280-2, 287, 382 
Ashley. Gen. William H., Indian trader, 89, 

158, 159, 163, 164. 165 
.Ashley's Fort. Mouth of Yellowstone, 165 
.Assiniboine, Red River traffic, 22 
".Assiniboine," steamer, upper Missouri, 173, 

17;. 291 
.Astor, John Jacob, fur trader, 90, 91 
Atkinson, Edward G., postmaster Fort 

Pierre, 1855, 223 



.Atkinson, Gen. Henry, Indian treaties of 

1825, 164, 165, 166 
-Audubon, John James, ornithologist, guest 

at Fort Union, 171, 181 
.Authors of compiled Dakota codes, 449, 452 
Ayllon, Lucas Vasquez de, explorer, kidnaps 

Indian guests, 135 

Bacon, Lieutenant John A., protects Sioux 
Falls settlers (Siou.x massacre, 1862), 217 

Bad Lands, refuge and hunting grounds, 85, 
86, 254, 255, 256, 303, 309 

Baer, John M., Member Congress, 446, 608, 
609 

Ball, John, surveyor, 227, 228 

Bangs, T. R., attorney, 432 

Banks, list of, 1915, 550-553 

Banning, Richard, frontiersman, 233 

Barber, Amherst W., surveyor, 228, 229, 
246 

Barnard, Rev. Alonzo, missionary, — first Da- 
kota printing press, 211, 617, 625 

Barnes County organized, 527 

Barnes, George S., early settler, manager N. 
P. elevator company, 365 

Barry, D. F.. Indian photographs, 420 

Bass, Max, immigration agent, 350 

BATTLES : 
The First Encounter, 1620 (Illustration) 

.4 . . 

Virginia uprising, 1622-1644, 190, 191 

Pequot war, 1642, 191 

Hackensack uprising, 1642, 191 

King Philip's war, 1675, 5 

Swamp fight (illustration), 4 

Border wars, 1629-1714, 8 

Tuscarora war, 1710-1715. 11 

Uprising in the Carolinas. 1715, 12 

Braddock's defeat, 1755, 13 

Fort William Henry massacre, 1757, 191 

Cherokee war, 1759-1761. 13 

Wyoming massacre, 1778. 192 

.An old battlefield, 1790, 83 

Surrender of Vincennes, 1779, lOO 

Tippecanoe, 181 1, 100 

War of 1812, 117 

Lake Erie, 1813. 121 

New Orleans, 181 5, 57, 127 

Seven Oaks, 1816, 96 

.Arikara attack on the traders. 1823, 159 

Seminole or Creek war. 1817. 1835, 1842, 

106, III 
Massacre Lt. Grattan and his men (1855), 

211, 212 
Blue Water or Ash Hollow, 1855, 214 
Spirit Lake massacre. 1857, 244 
Minnesota massacre, 1862, 190, 208 



635 



636 



INDEX 



Birch Coulee, 1862, 202, 206 

Massacre of miners on gold-laden mac- 

kinavv, 1863, 292 
Big Mound, Buffalo and Stony Lake, 290 
Bad Lands or Little Missouri, 308 
Killdcer Mountain, 296, 300, 301 
White Stone Hills, 294 
Red Butte (Fisk expedition), 304 
Apple Creek, 2913 
Massacre, Fort Phil Kearney (Colonel Fet- 

terman's command), 1866, 306, 311 
Custer's last fight. Little Big Horn, 312 
Big Meadow, 1876 (Oscar Ward's story), 

518 
\\'ounded Knee, 1890, 255 
Death of Sitting Bull, 1890, 254 
Battleshii) North Dakota and silver. 436 
Beadle, \\'illiam H. H., surveyor, educator, 

school land protector, 228, 628, 629 
Beardsley, George G.. surveyor, 22S, 334, 365 
Beever, Lt. Fred J. H., death at battle Apple 

Creek, 291, 293, 299, 300 
Belcourt, Rev. George .\nthony. 152 
Belknap, Maj. Gen. W. W., Secretary of 

War, 314 
Bennett, Granville G., biographic notes, 383 
Benton, Miss Jessie, 210 
Benton, Thomas H., U. S. Senator. 210 
Berthold. Bartholomew, 188 
Berthold. Fort, 188 
Berthold Indian agency, 314 
Bigfire, Peter. Indian preacher. 243, 246 
Big Meadow, battle of. 518, 519 
Big Foot, ghost-dance exponent, 252, 253, 

255 
Big Sioux County (now Minnehaha, S. D.) 

organized, 215 
Big Sioux Indian settlement, 246 
Bijou Hills. 221 

Bird Woman (Sa-ka-ka-wea), 70. 71, 74, 75 
Bismarck, first Legislature, 372 
Bismarck, the Capital, viii. 63, 150, 167, 228, 
293. 299, 3'2, 316, 321, 333, sis, 370, 371- 
:^73, 374, 375, 378, 388, 404, 418, 507, 540. 
615 
Bismarck, Ladies Historical Society. 541 
Bismarck Land Office. 227 
Bismarck post-office (Mrs. Slaughter). 505. 

.S08 
Bismarck Townsite (formerly Edwinton). 

332. Tj-^s. 3,^6, 337 
Bismarck Tribune, viii. ^n. 316. 317. 325, 

483 
Blue Sky Law. 436 

Black Hills, gold discovery, given to .Asso- 
ciated press, 313, 314 
Blanding, J. W., surveyor, 228 
Blakely. (Taptain Russell (Red River mail 

and transportation), 149, 351. 354. 355 
Boiler. Henry, trader and author, 188 
Bonds issued under Gov. White, contest on, 

429 
Bootlegging declared a crime, 473 
Boswell, Mrs. W. C, first church organiza- 
tion, viii, 236 
Bottineau, Charles, voyageur, interpreter. 

farmer, 149, 232, 234, 235, 236 
Bottineau, Jean B.. lawyer, 236. ^22, 326 
Bottineau, Marie (now Mrs. Baldwin) law- 
yer, 236 
Bottineau. Pierre, 235, 236 



Bramble, Downer T., Yankton postmaster, 

trader, 223, 226, 279, 285 
Bridger, James, frontiersman, 235, 308 
Briggs, F. A., Gov., administration and 

death, 429 
British flag, origin and history, 2^, 47, 78, 

80, 89, in, 123, 126, 127 
British traders, 62, 71, 78. 80, 88, 89, 143, 

151, 152, 160, 165, 229 
Brookings, Wilmot W., founding Sioux 

Falls, 215, 222, 275, 280 
Brown, Maj. Joseph R., trader, soldier, 37, 

202, 203, 265 
Brown, Samuel J.. Indian captive, agent, 

interpreter, 37, 192 
Erownson. Harry, knew Sa-ka-ka-wea. 74 
Bruce, E, A. Justice, sketch of, 464 
Budge's "Tavern." 501 
Budge, William, pioneer, 315, 356, 361, 501, 

518, 519 
Buell. C. J., single taxer. unsupported, 412 
Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody), 34, 254, 521 
"Buffalo Republic" and buffalo hunting, 20, 

32, 37, 172. 230, 238, 513, 515 
Buffalo herds crossing, blockade Missouri 

river, 37 
Buffalo, the last great hunt, 38 
Burke, A. H., administration as governor 

(died at Roswell, N. M., Nov. 17, 1918), 

Burke. John. Governor (U. S. Treasurer), 

administration, 432 
Burbank station (now Moorhead), 232 
Burleigh County, pioneers, viir. S41 
Burleigh. Walter A.. M. C. 170. 288, 382 
Burlington (Red River) Townsite, 352 
Burnham, Captain J. W., story of Sully's 

campaign, 1864, 297, 299 

CaiTi Greene, "at or near Bismarck." 335. 
338 

Camp Hancock (Bismarck), i52 

Canfield. Thomas H.. N. P. R. R. and town- 
site promoter, 331, 332. 333, 33s 

Capital Commission created, 370. 371 

Capital Dakota Territory located, 281 

Capitol reconstruction, 431 

Garland, Major John, 240 

Garland, John E.. judge. 240 

Carnahan, John M.. telegrapher, 316. 325 

Car-tour with Dakota products. 375 

Casey and Carrington, extensive farming, 

339. 340 
Casey, Lyman R., U. S. Senator, 441 
Cash and land offered for capita! location. 

371 

Cavileer. Charles, first permanent white set- 
tler. 229, 257. 258. 356. 503, 515 

Cavileer. Mrs., story, aristocracy of the 
plains. 150. i.=;i 

Canada invaded, Indian refugees kidnapped. 
520 

Catholic church, mission and schools estab- 
lished. 07. 607-14 

Catholic church founded, chap, xxxix, 612 

Catholic mission. Devils Lake. 611 

Cattle investors. Roosevelt and others. 538, 

539 . . • 

Ceded Indian lands in unorganized territory. 

224 

Chain of American posts, 7. 102. 167, 210 

Chain of French posts. 8. g, 99 



I 



INDEX 



Chippewa Indians, 21, 152, 231 
Christiansen, A. M., Justice, sketch of, 464 
Church organization for prohibition, 471, 

472 
Clarkson, Bishop, Robert, 411, 412 
Cochrane, John M., Justice, sketch of, 462 
Codes of states compared, 448 
Codification of North Dakota laws, authors 

of, 449, 452 
Cody, Kelly, Elder, buffalo hunters, 521, 

523 

Cody, William F. (Buffalo Bill), 34, 254, 

523 
Cold storage experiment at Medora, 539 
Columbia Fur Company, 146, 147, 163, 167, 

170, 366 
Commission of 14 to adjust state property 

and debts, 409, 410 
Colter, John, a race for life, 168 
Compilation of laws, history of, 449, 452 
Congress, control over territories, 369 
Congress delays action on two states, 372 
"Conquest of the Missouri," J. M. Hanson's 

book, Tp 
Constitutional convention for North Dakota, 

387-395. 
Constitutional convention, officers and action, 

392, 395 
Constitution, North Dakota, authorship of, 

398 .. . 

Constitution of U. S., an essential condition, 

388. . 

Constitution, ratified; proclaimed a state by 

Pres. Harrison, Nov. 2, 1880, 415 
Contest for Division before Congress, 16 

years, 370 
Corliss, G. C. H., first Supreme Court Jus- 
tice, 40G 
Corliss, Justice, sketch of, 460 
Corporations, under new state, 403 
Cost of institutions, resisted by South Da- 
kota, 373 . ^ 
Counsel defending Yankton's suit. 371 
County names, their origin. 496, 500 
County list, with 4S5 post offices in 1889, 384, 

3S6 
Court, first term in Dakota Territory, 212 
Court, supreme, regulations for, 434. 456 
Creed of the Americans (Roosevelt), 631 
Creswell. Rev. R. L., story of missionary 

work, 248 
Curtis. William E., writer and buffalo-hunter, 

39 
Custer, Gen. George A., viii. 313, last fight, 
317-324 

Dakota, in the land of, 209 

the first newspaper, 211 

Fort Pierre established as military post, 
213 

christened. 216 

proclaimed a territory, 221 

first Post Office. 222 

pioneers of, 224-237 

created a territory. 263, 266 

territory organized. 275 

capital located at Yankton, 281 

capitol commission, and change to Bis- 
marck, 370. 371, 372, 374 

bonds Pnd indebtpd'^^ss, '22 

citizenship, qualification for, 277 

in Congress, 279, 382 



post offices, 1889, by counties, 384 

first land surveys, 227 

first homestead entries, 228, 229 

judicial districts, 277 

Indian agents and traders, 1872, 284 
Dalrymple. Oliver, farms, a^,, 527 
Daniels, Jared W., Indian agent and church 

organizer, 246, 327 
Davit, Patrick, Fargo pioneer, 334 
Debts, bonded, of N. and S. Dakota, 422 
Defeat of Spencer's lottery scheme from 

Louisiana, fiy Governor Aliller, 424, 425 
Deming, Capt. Edward W.. noted artist, 260 
Delegates to Congress from Dakota Terri- 
tory, 384 
Delegates to Constitutional Convention, 387- 

393 
Devine. J. M. Lt. Gov., succeeds Briggs, 429 
Dixon. Dr. Joseph E., expedition to the 

American Indians, 260 
De Smet, Father Peter J., missionary, 250- 

257 
Dickey. Samuel A., trader, first postmaster 

Bismarck, 312 
Devils Lake, 20, 21, 36. 106, 152. 154, 231 
Dickinson. 296, 300, 30? ' 

Dickson, Robert, 79 
Distillery, Fort Union, 179 
Division and admission, 360. 370, 373, 387 
Division of state assets, by commission, 408, 

.4" 
Discussions on new systems, 402, 412 

Douglas, H. F., first church organization, 

VIII 

Douglas, Thomas, Earl of Selkirk. 93. 94, 

95, 96. 105 
Draft of Constitution revised, printed. 414 
Draper, Mrs. Charles E. V.. viii 
Dubuque, settlers at Sioux Falls, 216 
Duties of legislature, 424 
Durant. Blakelv. original "Old Shadv," WO, 

512 ' 

Eaffle Help, first Indian to read and write 
Sioux language. 242 

Epfle. Tames Holding, inspects Sa-Ka-Ka 
Wea statue. 75 

Earliest settled location, 369 

Eastman John, native preacher and artist. 
249 

Edge. William, first Red River valley school- 
teacher, 549 

Eddy, E. B.. pioneer banker, 548 

Edgerton, Judge A. J., decides Commission 
illegal, 371 . . 

Edgerton's decision reversed, 372 

Edmunds. Newton, pioneer Dakotan and 
Governor, 275, 287 

Edwards. Major Alanson W., editor, super- 
intendent Census (picture), 398 

Edwinton (now Bismarck), 332. 335 

Election, LT. S. Senators, 422, 423 

Elevators and sites, compulsory. 609 

Flk Point, settlement of. 220 

Ellsworth. Col., witnesses to his murder. 
1861, 508 

Elm River, N. K. Hubbard's sure tip, 365 

Elmer, Rev. Oscar H., pioneer preacher, 61S 

Emmons, Capt. James A., pioneer merchant, 
294, 314, 522 

Emmons, Mrs. Nina, first Bismarck bride, 
522, 541, 542 ^ 



638 



INDEX 



Enabling act for new state, 387 
Engerud, Edward, Justice, sketch of, 463 
Executive department, how exercised, 422 

Fargo, N. P. R. R. crossing. Red River 
founded, viii, 228, 233, 312, 327, 332. 339, 

371 
Fargo named, 334 
Farmers' Non-partisan League, 603 
"Far West" steamer, carries wounded of 

Custer's command, viii, 316, 320, 324, 325, 

326 
Field, D. D., Jurist, P. C. Shannon's eulogy, 

447 
Finch, Mickie, a frontier incident, 169 
First farming in Dakota, 41 

suggestion of North Dakota for name of 
state, 41 

cliild, born to slave parent, 42 

child born to white parents, 42 

family names in Turtle Mountains, 47 

U. S. volunteer infantry (Confederate 
prisoners of war), 188 

public school-house, 219 

cabin home, at Yankton, 225 

Dakota post offices, ^222 

surveys of public land, 227 

land office and land entries, 228 

white settlement (Pembina), 22q 

flour mill (Walhalla), 233 

settlement near Fargo, 233 

farms in Red River valley, 234 

stage, Red River valley, 352 

newspaper established, 483, 485 

Regiment North Dakota Infantry, 577, 600 

protestant church organized, 615 
Fisher, John W., church organization, viii, 

61S 
Fisk, C. J., Justice, sketch of, 462 
Fisk, Capt. James L., Idaho expedition, 304, 

306 
Flandrau, Judge, Charles E., et al., organized 

Dakota Land Co., 215, 265 
Flag of U. S. hoisted at Fort Mandan, 64 
Flood calamity, along Missouri river, 376 
Fontenelle, Lucien, fur trader, 163 to 174 
Forbes, Wm. H., Indian agent, 284 
Fort Abercrombie, established, battle of, 201, 
218, 219, 258, 338, 352 

Abraham Lincoln, 237, 312, 325, 337 

Atkinson (later Berthold), 188 

Berthold. located, battle of, 84, 88, 189, 
235. 248 

Buford, 172, 178, 303, 312, 314, 321, 325, 
329 

Clark, earlv trading post, 74, 162, 168, 174, 
178, 183,' 186, 187. 235, 236, 238 

Daer (Selkirk's at Pembina), 1)6 

Douglas (Selkirk settlement), 05. 96, 07t 

145 
Garry (Winnipeg), 149, 151, 211, 229, 292, 

352. 353, 354 

Mandan (Lewis and Clark's), 64, 70, 71 

Mortimer (Buford), 179 

Orleans (Grand River), occupants massa- 
cred, 156 

Panbian (Pembina), 31 

Pembina. 31, 40, 42 to 46, 49, 50, ;i, 107, 
329, 366 

Pierre, 155, 167, 168, 171, 173. 200. 213, 214, 
220, 223, 237 

Ransom. 543 



Rice, 223, 295, 304, 305, 312, 313, 314, 329, 

337 

Seward (Jamestown), 528 

Stevenson, 188, 189, 303, 312 

Sully, 213, 248, 295 

Totlen, 238, 23g, 240, 313. 366 

Union (now Mondak), 167, 171 to 174, 
177 to 180, 180 to 187, 2t)2 

Wadsworth, in the buffalo country, 36, 246, 
247, 304. 306 

William (Buford), 178, 179, 180 

Yates (Standing Rock Agency), 150. 254 
Fox, Livingston and Co., traders, 168-179, 

18s, 186 
Frazier, Governor Lvnn J., sketch of life, 

605 
Freeman, Lieut., killed by Indians, 297 
"Freighter" steamer transferred from Min- 
nesota to Red river, 155 
Frost, Todd & Company, 218, 225, 264 
Fur trade, 15, 156, 167, i68, 170 to 178, 

193, 264 

Galpin, Major, Charles E., early trader, 213, 

216, 218, 222, 23y, 238, 289 
Georgetown, Hudson Bay trading Post, Red 

River, 232. 234, 352, 353, 365 
Gerard, Frederick F., early trader, 236, 238, 

292, 316, 318 
Ghent, treaty of, 130 

GifFord. Oscar S., biographic notes, 384, 565 
Gold in the grass-roots, 313 
Gold in murdered miner's mackinaw, 292 
Goose river, where Charlo balked — buffalo 

herds, 29, 154 
Gore, Mahlon, editor, first Dakota homestead 

entryman. 220, 228, 288 
Governor compelled to audit accounts, 426 
Grading and inspection of wheat, political 

issue, 604 
Grand Army pledge in public schools, 634 
Grand Fork's, viii, 26, 29, 30, 33, 43, 44, 49, 

155. 228, 238, 3:5, 340, 354, 365, 366 
Grand Forks County, 524 
Grand Forks University and school of 

mines, 566 
Grand Jury system abolished, 424 
Grandin farms, 333 
Grant, Orville, controlled Indian traderships, 

S07 
Great Northern Railroad, history of, 340 to 

355 
Great Sioux reservation, 313, 327 
Griffin, Ed., early settler. Red River valley. 

^33- 358, 359 
Griggs, Captain Alex, founder of Grand 

Forks, 155, 354, 355, 3S7, 360, 390 
Gronna, A. J., Senator, sketch of, 443 

Hackett, Edmond, townsite contestant, Bis- 
marck, 336 
Haggart. Hon. John E., Fargo pioneer, 334 
Haight. .'^ug., tells of murder of Col. Ells- 
worth. .-Mexandria, 508 
Half-blood element, buffalo, etc., 513 to 515 
Hall. Rev. C. L., missionary Berthold In- 
dians, 248 • 
Hall, J. B., pioneer publisher, 487 
Hall. Thomas, secretarv of state. 4-2 
Hamilton, John G., Indian agent, lawyer, 
compiler of codes and history, 248, 392. 
393. 450, 452 



INDEX 



639 



Hannafin, Dennis, pioneer, 337, ^83 

Hanson, Major Joseph R., 203 

Hanson, Joseph Mills, historic and poetic 

writer, ■i^ 
Hanna, Gov. L. B., administration, 434-435 
Hansbrough, H. C, Senator, sketch of, 44J 
Harrison, Ben., Senator, long tight for Da- 
kota, 372 
Harrison, President, helped Dakota Division 

and concord, 374 
Harney's expedition, 213, 214 
Harvey, Premeau & Company, traders, 167, 

172, 178 
Helgesen, H. T., sketch of, 444 
Hendrickson, murder case, sentence by 

Judge Pollock, 477 
Henry, Alexander, trader, 18 to 31, 40 to 52, 

148; 154, 234 
Henry, Andrew, trader (Ashley & Henry), 

158, 163, 164 
Hill. James J. (Great Northern Railroad 

builder), 18, 40, 155, 229, 278, ;§40 to 355 
Historical Society, ladies, 541 
Holes, James, pioneer farmer, 334 
Homestead Law and land entries, 228, 264 
Hudson's Bay Company, 8, 17, 18, 30, 40, 44, 

46, 49, 70, 81, 89, 93 to 98, 103, 145, 149, 

152, 153. 155, 159. 173, 352, 354 
Hunting and trapping, 26, 27, 28, 32 to 39, 

147, 158, 174, 238 

Immigration, board of, defeated, 429 
Illegal acquirement of U. S. land, 536 
Indians murder missionary women, St. 

Joseph, 625 _ 
Indian women's clubs, 86 
Immel, Michael, Robert Jones, and five other 

trappers, killed by Indians, 158 
Iron Heart, Sioux chief, 1862, 238 
Indians, first encounter with Pilgrims, 1620, 4 

Logan and Lord Dunsmore, 5 

Virginia uprising, 1622-1644, 190, 191 

Trade established in North America, 8 

Pequot war, 1637, 191 

Hackensack uprising, 1642, 191 

King Philip's war, 1675, 5 

Alignment of tribes in border wars, 8, 9, 
10 

The Iroquois country, 10 

Civil organization and rights of women, 
12 

Tuscarora war of 1711 and Indian league 
of 1715, 12 

A pathetic appeal, 11 

Cherokee war of 1761, 13 

Seminole, first and second wars, 15 

Conflicts due to fur trade, 15 

Fort Mims massacre, 1813, 15 

Massacre. Fort William Henry, 1757, 191 

Wyoming massacre, 1778, 192 

Henry's Red River brigade and I:,aian 
contingent, 20 

Chippewas terrorized by Sioux, 21 

The vicious element of liquor, 26 

'^ n attempt at bribery, 27 

Chat'.-^ takes in too much territory, 29 

Smallpox scourge of 1780 and 1837, 30, 
183 

Riches of tiu Indians, 32 

The last great '.'.'int, 38 

Henry's lament on the degeneracy of the 
Indian (the stain an the record), 45 



A night attack on Pembina, 50 

Ankara villages, 60 

Arikara Lodge, 61 

Attitude of the Indians, 62 

Mandan villages, (53 

The Bird Woman, Sa-Ka-Ka-Wea, 72, 74 

Return of the Mandan chief, 76 

"When wild in woods the noble savage 

ran," ^^ 
\ isit to Mandan villages, 80 
Mandan circular huts, %2 
Arikaras and Hidatsa, 84 
Ideal Indian homes, 85 
Social life among Indians, 86 
Graft in Indian trade, 88 
Wayne and the treaty of Greenville, loi 
John Tanner, the white captive, 102 
Pe-shau-ba's recollections and death, 104 
The Shawnee prophet, 105 
The Prophet's messengers at Pembina, 

108 
Harrison and Tecumseh, log, iii 
Major Long feasted by the Wahpetons, 

entertained by Wanaton, 146 
Dog sledge and travois, 147, 148 
Trappers ambushed, 158, 159 
Punishing the Arikara, 159, 161 
Treaties of 1825, 164 
Indian debts to traders, 166 
John Colter's race for life, 168 
"Fire boat that walks on the water," the 

"Yellowstone," 172 
Battle of Fort McKenzie, 175 
Liquor for • the Yellowstone trade, 179, 

180, 182 
Gauche, the "wild Bonaparte of the 

prairies," 187 
Bear Rib suffers the Indian penalty of 

treason, 187 
Hidatsas move to Berthold, 188 
Minnesota massacre, 1862, 190, 208 
In the Sioux country, 209, 223 
Massacre of Lieutenant Grattan and 30 

men, 1854, 211, 212 
Harney's punitive expedition, 213, 214 
Conquest of the Sioux (Christianizing), 

241, 262 
Joseph Renville translates Bible into Sioux 

language, for Dr. Riggs, 242 
Eagle Help, first Sioux to read and write 

the language, 242 
Spirit Lake massacre, 1857, 244 
The Pilgrims of Santee, 246 
Prophets and black gowns. Father De 

Sraet, 250 
Religion of the Dakotas — the ghost dance, 

252 
Death of Sitting Bull, 254 
Battle of Wounded Knee, 255 
The Rodman Wanamaker expedition to 

North American Indians, 259 
Dakota Indian affairs, 283 
.Agents and agencies, 1872, 284, 285 
Minnesota massacre, captives, 283 
The Fetterman or Fort Phil Kearney 

massacre, 1866, with list of casualties, 

306. 311 
The Custer massacre (1876) with list of 

casualties, 312 to 326 
Fanny Kelly's story of captivity, 305 
Indian Treaties, 100. loi, 139. 161, 164, 

192, 211, 217, 283, 326 



6i0 



INDEX 



Major McLaughlin's story of Sitting Bull 
in the march of civilization, 418, 420 
(For wars and battles, see Battles, and Out- 
lines of American History) 

Jackman, John J., Bismarck pioneer, 335, 

337 
Jamestown, early days at, 528 
Jamestown, viii, 3, 312, 340, 370, m, 404. 

406, 484, 486, 495, 528 
Jamestown College (Presbyterian), 622 
Javne, Governor William, 275 to 289, 382 
Jewell, Marshal H., Bismarck Tribune, 451, 

48s 

Johnson, Edwin F., N. P. R. R. engineer, 

330 to 333 . 

Johnson, James. Ward county pioneer, 380 

Johnson, Hon. Martin N., 390, 396, 403, 406, 

413, 442 
Joint Commission to settle accounts, 409, 410, 

424 
Judges of 12 district courts, names of. 465 
Judicial organization and system, 401 
Jurisdiction of Supreme court, 457, 458 

Kelly, Arthur W., Jamestown pioneer, sketch, 

353, 529 ^ 
Kelly. Luther Sage, a scout and hunter. 521, 

522 
Keeney, Gordon, J., Fargo pioneer, 334 
Kidder, Jefferson, P., Judge and M. C, 216, 

222 
Kildonan (Selkirk settlement in 1817), 95 
"King of the Upper Missourj," 17°, 172 
Kingsbury, Geo. W.. 282. 287 
Kingsbury, William Wallace, 215 
Kipp. James, trader, 168, 174 
Kittson, Norman W., 40, 152, 153, 229, 341, 

350, 351, 353, 354 
Knappen. Nathan H., 313, 484 
Knauf, John, Justice, sketch of, 461 
Knight, Eben W., pioneer printer, 485 

La Barge, Joseph, 181 

Lafayette. Red River townsite. 233, 352 

Lake Superior and Puget Sound Townsite 

Company. Hi. .^34, 335. 336 
Lamont, Daniel (later secretary of war), a 

fur trader, 170, 173 
Lamoure, Judson .\., a Dakota pioneer. 220, 

226. 232, 357, 361 
Lamoure. Edward B.. brother of Judson, 

killed by Indians, 207, 220, 357 
Land granted to State schools, 630 
Land surveys and entries, 227, 228, 229 
Larnenteur, Charles, trader, 34, 172, 174, 180, 

182 
Lauder, Win. S., 390, 400, 402, 416 
Laws by non-partisan reform, list of, 609 
Leasing and sale of school-lands, 424 
Leavenworth's expedition, 159, 160, 161 
Leighton, Alvin C, trader, 172, 307 
Lewis and Clark expedition, 58 to 73 
Little Crow in Minnesota Massacre, 1862, 

190, 196, 198. 200, 203. 207. 231 
IJttlc Missouri, battle of. .303 
Little Six and Medicine Bottle. 231. 246, ,S20 
Lisa. Manuel, pioneer Missouri river fur- 
trader. 71, 76, 91, 158 
Liquor, beginning of the Pequot war of 1637, 

King Philip's war of ''i?;, ^ 
Minnesota massacre, 1862, 197 



and cause of small-pox scourge of 1837, 

183. 184 
distillery at Fort Union, 179 
illicit in trade with Indians, 180 
pernicious effect in civil and military life, 

182 
prohibition, history of, in North Dakota, 

470 
vicious use in the fur trade, 19. 26, i"], 28, 
44, 45, 46, 47 

Location of territorial Capital at Yankton, 
281 

Long. Major Stephen H., Yellowstone ex- 
pedition of 1819-20. 143 

Long. Alajor, International boundary ex- 
pedition, 145 

Louisiana lottery, 424 

Louisiana purchase, 53 

Lounsberry, Colonel Clement A., founder 
Bismarck Tribune, 39, 227, 302, 312, 314, 
315, 316, 325, 358, 359, 360, 363, 364, 41S, 
474. 483, 497, 507, 508, 519, 528, 552, 615, 
616 

Lowell. Jacob. Jr.. 334, 356, 361, 365 

Making pemmican, 35, 36 

Mandan, viii 

Mandan, experiment farm location. 436 

Mandan. Fort. 64, 174 

Mandan Indians, 6r to 65, 80 to 85, 164, 165, 

177. 179, 188, 283 

Mandan villages, 33, 41, 61, 63, 70 to 76, So 
to 85, 143, 165, 177, 235 

Marble statue of Gen. Beadle at Pierre. 629 

Marquis de Mores, cattle scheme at Medora, 
539 

Marshall. T. F.. M. C, sketch. 443 

Marseillaise hymn and Star-Spangled Ban- 
ner, 129 

Marsh, Captain Grant, xiii, 37, 316, 325 

Massacre, Minnesota, viii. 192 to 208 

Mathews, Dr. Washington, 188 

Martyrs of St. Joseph, 625 

Maximilian, Prince of Wied, 173, 175 to 

178, 183, 184, 235 

McCabe, Bishop C. C. last visit. 564 

McCauleyville, 155 

McCook, Gen. E. S., killed by Winternuite, 

547 
McCumber, Senator, Porter J,.. 237, 442 
McFetridge, James, 265, 280. 281, 282 
McHench, Andrew. 334. 358. 363. 365 
McHenry. James. 263 
AlcKenzie. Alexander, pioneer sheriff. 371. 

379, 381, 421, 497, 541 
McKenzie, Fort, battle of. 175 to 177 
McKenzie, Kenneth. "King of the Upper 

Missouri," manager Fort Union, 167, 170 

to 172, 175. 17S. 179. 185, 186 
McLaughlin, Major James, 38, 239, 240, 254, 

255, 260 
McLean, John A., 314 
McVey, F. L., President University, 571 
Medicine Bottle and Little Six kidnapned. 

520 
Medora, name of Mrs. de Mores. 539 
Medora, Roosevelt Ranch, 86, 538 
Meeker, Ralph. 314 
Members of Congress, biographies of, 441, 

445 
Memorial to Congress, 1889, by Lounsberry, 

379 



INDEX 



641 



Merrifield, Webster, university president 18 

years, 567 
Methodism, history of in North Dakota, 554, 

564 
Midway county, 215, 216, 217 
Miles, Gen. Nelson A., closes the ghost dance 

agitation, 256 
Miles, General, and Chief Joseph banquet at 

Bismarck, 522 
Miller, Henry F., 390, 404 
Miller, Gov. John, first governor, 422, 424 
Miner, Captain Nelson, 286, 287, 288, 296, 297 
Minnehaha County (Sioux Falls), 215, 217, 

221 
Minnesota massacre, viii, 192 to 208 
Minnesota Stage Company, 352 
Missionaries, early Catholic, named, 610, 614 
Missouri River Fur Company, 75, 76, 91, 

158 to 163 
Moffett, Capt. W. P., Bisnnarck Co., 577 
Mondak, town on State line, 171 
Morgan, Judge D. E.. sketch of, 460 
Moorhead, William H., trader and townsite 

promoter, 229 to 232 
Moorhead (Mmn.), 155, 232, 312, 332, 334, 

335, 357, 366, 614 
Mouse or Souris river, 83, 103 
Moyian, Capt. Myles, erroneously printed 

Boylan, 318 
Murray, Alexander, Selkirk colony, 35 
Muster-in-roll, N. Dakota Infantry, names, 

591, 600 

Names, lists of voyageurs, Henry's Red 
River brigade, 18 to 20 
Vovageurs, early traffic on Red River, 51, 

Roster, Lewis and Clark Expedition, 71 
Organization Missouri Fur Company, 76 
Roster, Pike's Expedition, 78 
Reorganized Missouri Fur Company, 91 
Long's International Boundary expedition, 

14s 
Casualties in Indian attack on the traders, 

159 

Roster of officers. Colonel Leavenworth s 
expedition, 159 

Membership, Rocky Mountain Fur Com- 
pany, 160 

Traders having claims against the Sioux 
in treaty of 1851, 193, 196 

Vermilion' settlement, 212 

Roster of officers at Fort Pierre, 1855, 

213 
Founders of Sioux Falls, 215, 216 
Officers organizing Big Sioux County (now 

Minnehaha). 217 
Sioux Falls settlers driven away by In- 
dians, 217 
Bon Homme early settlers, 219 
Elk Point and other early settlements, 220 
Charles Mix and Ponca Agency settlers, 

221 
Persons taking census of Dakota, i860, 

222 
Dakota postmasters, 1855 to 1866, 222 
Members Upper Missouri River Townsite 

Company, 225 
Yankton early settlers, 225 
Persons making first Dakota surveys, 227, 

228 
Pioneer homestead settlers, 229 



First settlers, Pembina, 229 

Identified with Dakota prior to 1861, 234, 

237 
The Pilgrims at Santee Agency, 246 
Indian signers to pledge of allegiance, 261 
Dakota Representatives in Minnesota Con- 
stitutional Convention, 265 
Officers chosen first Dakota election, 276, 

278 
Engaged in first political movement, 280 
Dakota Old Settlers Association, 282 
Indian Agents and Traders, 1872, 284, 285 
Dakota Militia, 1S62, 286, 287 
Officers in Sibley Expedition, 1863, 290 

to 293 
Officers Sully's Expedition, 1863-1864, 294 
Officers at Fort Wadsworth, 1864, 304 
Casualties, Battle Red Butte (Fisk's Ex- 
pedition), 305 
Casualties, Fetterman Massacre, Fort Phil 

Kearney, 1866, 310 
Casualties in Custer Massacre, 1876, 320, 

323 
Northern Pacific Syndicate to save char- 
ter, 332 
Fargo first settlers, 334 
Red River Valley Old Settlers Association, 

356, 364 
Fargo Convention Delegates appointed to 
visit Washington for division of terri- 
tory, 379 
Officers and members of North Dakota 

Constitutional Convention, 388, 392 
Personnel of the Constitutional Conven- 
tion, 416 
Officers North Dakota Bar Association, 

1899-1916, 469 
Press of North Dakota, Editors and Pub- 
lishers, 483, 495 
North Dakota Counties, for whom named, 

496, 500 
Pioneer Settlers and Settlements in JSIorth 

Dakota, 524, 545 
Settlers in Burleigh Countv prior to June 

5, 1873. 532 
Banks and bankers of North Dakota, 

546, 555, 
Roster of First North Dakota Infantry, 

577, 601 
Early Catholic Missionaries in North Da- 
kota, 610, 614 
Early Presbyterian Organizations, names 
of Missionaries, Pastors and members, 
615, 626 
National Unity, league for, 630 
Nash, W. C, 233, 356, 520 
Nelson County, 385 
Nelson. N. E., pioneer, 356 
Newspapers, names of publishers, 483 to 49.S 
Newspapers, full list to January 1917, 491 

to 495 
New York Herald's news of the Custer 

massacre, viii, 315, 316 
Ninety million buffalo, 16 
Nolan, James, Red River pioneer, 356 to 

362 
Nolen, Misses, teachers at Pembina, 97 . 
Non-partisan league, 603, 604 
North Dakota in Congress, sketch of dele- 
gates, senators and members, 3S2 to 384, 
441 to 445 



642 



INDEX 



North Dakota, division of Dakota Territory, 
369 to 379 

enabling act, 387 

Constitutional convention, 388 to 418 

Pioneers and State Historical society, viii, 
540, 541, 542 
Northern Lights (aurora borealis), 69, 70 
Northern Pacific Railroad, 311, 312, 314, 331 

to 340. 365, 526 to 530 
Northern Pacific Railroad extension west 

from Fargo. 333 
Northrup, Capt. Anson, 154, 233, 352 
Northrup, George W., 36, 233, 3S3 
North-West Company, 18, 30, 46 to 51, 64, 

70, 80, 81, 8g, 91, 93 to 98, 103, 167 
North-West Company's canoe service, 93 
Northwest Territory, 99 to loi, 108 
Norton, P. D., M. C. sketch of, 445 
Norwegian first settlers, 334 

Officers and justices Supreme Court, com- 
pensation, 457 

Oakport, 334 

"Old Shady," origin of song, Blakely Durant, 
510, 512 

Ordway, Governor Nehemiah G., 375, 378, 
379. 381 

Ordway, N. G., general estimate, 375, 379 

Oregon trail, visible remains of, 543 

Organic Act, North Dakota, 369, 387 

Otherday, John, Indian, 245 

Outlines American History, first trading 
posts, the border wars, 8 
French posts on the border, the six nations, 

Indian alignment in the border wars, 9 
The Iroquois country, 10 
A pathetic appeal against Pennsylvania 

whites, II 
The Cherokees, 12 
Marion, Gen. Francis, 14 
Creeks and Seminoles, 14 
Conflicts due to the fur trade, 15 
Hudson's Bav Company; Rupert's Land, 

17 
Northwest Fur Company, Henry's Red 

River brigade, 18 
Hunting grounds, bear, beaver and other 

game, 20 
.Sioux and Chippewa tribes at war, 21 
Origin and history of the British flag, 

23, 26 
Hunters and their spoils, 28 
Early trading posts, 30 
Louisiana purchase, 53, 58 
Lewis and Clarke expedition, 59 
Mandan villages, 63 
The stars and stripes, 65 
Eleventh toast, treaty of Paris, 66 
Condition of the frontier, 1805, 77 
Pike's expedition to the upper Mississippi, 

78 . . 

Henry visits Mandan villages, 80 

Graft in Indian trade, 88 

Country overrun by traders, 89 

Selkirk colony, 93 

Governors and settlers killed (Selkirk 

colony), 96 

The Northwest territory, 99 

The Ordinance of 1787, 101 

Acquired by the treaty of Paris, 108 

Harrison and Tecumseh, 109 



A chapter apart, John Henry, British agent, 

112 
War of 1812, 117 
Battle of Lake Erie, 119, 126 
Treaty of peace, 127 
Star Spangled Banner, The Marseillaise, 

129 
Treaty of Ghent, 130 
The abolition of slavery, 132 
Slavery, general facts. 134 (see Note) 
Early exploring expeditions, 143 
First steamboat on the Missouri, 144 
Opening of navigation on the Red River, 

154 
Conquest of the Missouri, 158 
Forty years in the hands of Indian traders, 

170 
First steamer on the upper Missouri, 172 
Maximilian's visit to the interior of North 

America, 175, 180 
Man's inhumanity to man ; — Indian upris- 
ings, 190, 192 
The Minnesota massacre, 190, 208 
In the Sioux country, 209, 233 
Harney's, Col. W. S., expedition. Fort 

Pierre established, 213, 220 
The conquest of the Sioux, 241, 262 

Palmer, Mark M., Yankton, first Dakota 

banker, 546 
Panbian, Fort (Pembina), 40 
Paper townsites, 230 
Paris Treaty (1783), 100, 108 
Parkin. Henry S., trader, state senator, 237 
Park River, 21, 22, 23, 2(), 32 
Park River Post, 22, 26, 27, 28, 31, 33, 43, 44 
Park River settlers, 534, 535 
Party organization indispensable (author's 

opinion, 1892), 632 
Pembina (Red River) carts, 42, 148 
cart line of transportation, 516 
church and schools established, 97 
County, 216, 26s, 356, 366, 385, 494, 496 
district, 222, 226 
half bloods, 153 
House, or trading post, 40, 95 
hunters, 35, 36 

land entries and land office, 229. 332, 334 
land surveys, 228 
Mountains, 33, 43, 44, 45, 231 
post office established 1855, 222, 503 
trading posts established, 31 to 51, 95, 

153, 168, see also 98, 229 to 259, 281 
village of. viii, 95, 226, 232, 36$, 366 
Pettigrew. Richard Frank, Senator, bio- 
graphical notes, 383 
Permanent school fund, 629 
Pequot Hill, battle of (King Philip's War), 

6 
Picotte, Charles F., native, trader, 222, 225, 
237 

Note : World war ; remote cause of vic- 
tory ; Union Grand Armies extinguished 
Rebellion in 1865. In 1015 united 
America succored despairing Europe, 
conquering the Huns. Rebel policy of 
1861, if then triumphant, would have 
broken up America, made us unable to 
resist Germany. 

Hence, Union victories of 1865 saved 
the life of Belgium, France and Britain 
ill 1918. 53 years later. 



INDEX 



643 



Pierce, Gilbert A., Senator, sketch of, 423, 

441 
Pike's expedition (1805), 47, 78 
Pilclier, Maj. Joshua, trader, 91, 159 to 162 
Pioneer Episcopal clergyman (Robert Wain- 
right), 626 
Pioneer banks of Dakota Territory, 546 
Pioneers of counties : Barnes Co., 527, 528 

Bottineau Co., 535, 536 

Burleigh Co., 164 names, 532 

Cass Co., 526 

Grand Forks Co., 524 

great farms, 525 

Ransom Co., 543, 545 

Richland Co., 531 

Rolette Co., 537 

Stutsman Co., 529 

Towner Co., 545 

Walsh Co., 533 

Wells. Co., 538 ■ 
Political revolution of 1914, 604 
Pollock, Judge Chas. A. — Father of pro- 
hibition law, 474, 476 
Pollock, on effects of prohibition, 478, 482 
Pollock, sentence on Hendrickson, 477 
Pond brothers, missionaries. 241 to 244 
Population by census of 1888, 374 
Porter, Dr. Henry R. (hero of Custer's last 

campaign), 316, 321, 324, 325 
Post offices in North Dakota at admission, 

384, 386 
Power, J. B., 334, 526 
Primeau, Picotte & Boosie, 238 
Presbyterian Church organized, 615 
Presbyterianism in North Dakota. 615 to 626 
Prohibition, history of contest in state, 470 
Probstfield. Randolph M.. 233, 356. 357 
Promotions of convention members, 416 
Public property, division of, 396 
Purcell, Senator W. E., sketch, 411, 444 

Railroad rights, in Constitution, 403 

Ramsey, Governor Alexander, 195, 310, 617 

Ransom County, 494, 498, 543 

Raymond, John B., sketch of, 384 

Rea, John A., "a lightning steamboat ride," 

324 
Reagan, N. V. Senator, pleads for "Free 

Silver," 413 
Rectangular System of surveys (Note: 

Thomas Hutchins was its first deviser, not 

Jared Mansfield) Law of 1785, 628 
Red Buttes, battle of, 304 
Redfield, favored for new capital, 370 
Red River — 

brigade. Henry's, 18, 28, 42, 43, 154 

carts, 42, 148, 152, 352, 516 

crossing by N. P. R. R., 333, 334, 365 

first farming in valley, 41, 234 

first traffic on, 51, 154 

transportation (Kittson line steamboats), 
154, 153, 350 
Red River Valley, old settlers, associations, 

names, and date of settlement, 356 to 366 
Regents of State institutions, board of, 438 
Removal of territorial capital by commis- 
sion, 370 
Renville, Gabriel, scout and hunter, 36, 37. 

246 
Renville, Joseph, guide, interpreter and 

transjater of New Testament, 78, 145, 

167, 241, 242, 250 



Reports of Supreme Court, 454, 457 
Reynolds, Charles, "the scout that Custer 

loved," 318 
Richland County, 530 
Rich, Morgan "T., first settler Wahpeton, 

sketch of, 530 
Riggs, Rev. Albert L., missionary, 247 to 

.257 
Riggs, Rev. Stephen R,, 192, 203, 241 to 251 
Riggs, Rev. Thomas C, 247, 250 
Roach, Senator William N., 238, 239 
Roberts, Charles, Fargo pioneer, 334 
Roberts, S. G., Fargo pioneer, 334 
Rocky Mountain Fur Co., 163 
Rolette, Joseph, sketch of, 517 
Roman Catholic Church, 75, 145, 610 
Roosevelt, Theodore, ranchman and deputy 

sheriff. Stark County (buried January 7, 

1919), 86, 538 
Root, Elihu, on simplified codes, 469 
Ross, H. N., miner, Custer's Black Hills 

expedition, 313 
Rosseau, S., interpreter, Pike's expedition, 

78 
Rosser, Gen. Thomas L., N. P. R. R. en- 
gineer, 338 
Rules to govern Constitutional Convention, 

394, 395 
Rupert's Land, 17, 18, 94 to 97 

Saint Boniface mission, 97 
Sa-ka-ka-wea, the "bird woman," guide and 
interpreter, Lewis & Clark e.xpedition, 70 
to 75 
Salt River post, 31, 44, 45 
Sanborn. George G., Fargo pioneer, 334, 

335. 365 
Sarles, Elmore Y., Governor, 430, 432 
Saunders, Rev. Eben E., missionary, editor, 
author historical notes and sketches, 624 
Scandinavian settlers at Fargo, 334 
School;land laws, their origin in 1785, 628 
School-lands, protection of, 400 
School-lands saved under Beadle's plan, 629 
Scouts, deeds of famous guides, 521, 523 
Selkirk Colony, 93 to 98, see 185, 257 
Semple, Governor Robert, and Selkirk set- 
tlers killed, q6, 94, 96, 185 
Seven Oaks massacre, 96 
Seventh Standard parallel for division line, 

369. 382 
Seventh U. S. Cavalry (Custer's), viii, 255, 

313 to 327 
Shannon, Judge Peter C, author of codes, 

446 
Shannon, decision on Woman's Status, 507 
Shelton's trading expedition, 518 
Shortridge, Eli C. D., Governor, biographical 

notes, 426, 427 
Sibley expedition, 200 to 295, 543 
Sibley, Gen. Henry H., 195, see 290 
Sioux Falls, 211, 215 to 225, 227, 287, 288 
Sitting Bull, 253, 254, 333, 420, 421 
Slaughter, Dr. B. P., 338, 540 
Slaughter, Mrs. Linda W., "the Doctor's 

wife," 312, 505, 507, 541 
Slavery and slave trade, Capt. Willey, wit- 
ness, 134 to 139 
Sloan, Rev. Isaac O., pioneer preacher, 615 
Souris or Mouse River, 84 
Spalding, Burleigh F., judge and M. C, 
371, 391, 395, 443, 463 



G44 



INDEX 



Spink, Hon. Solomon L., sketch of, 382 
Stage, mail and transportation line to Pem- 

bnia, 352, 353, 354 
Stanley's expedition, 338 
Stars and Stripes, 64 to 69 
Star-Spangled Banner, 129 
State federation of women's clubs, 75 
Historical Society, viii, 542 
Schools endowed with lands, 630 
University, 565 
Status of bonds, defined by court, 430 
Stein, Adam, pioneer, 365 
Stevens, Reuben N., pioneer lawyer, 391, 

400, 406, 416 
Stevenson, Don, pioneer freighter, 519 
Stewart, Senator, urged free silver for con- 
stitution, 412 
Stone, James M., Yankton pioneer, 225 
Stories of pioneers, 503, 505 
Storm wrecked university, 566 
Stutsman County, 528 . 
Stutsman, Enos, pioneer, 226, 495, 496, 497, 

=;28 
Sullv, Gen. Alfred H., 188, 213, 293 to 304 
Sully's expedition (1863-1864), 293. to 304 
Suffrage, female, subject for legislation, 

400 
Sunday School Association, 624 
Supreme Court, North Dakota. 453 
Supreme Court, judges, sketches of, 458 to 

464 
Survey of division boundary, 424 
Swamp fight (King Philip's War), 5 
Swan, James K., pioneer, 356, 357, 360, 362 
Sweet, George W., townsite agent, 335 
Sykes, Sir Francis, hunting expedition, 36 
Sykeston (Richard Sykes, promoter), 340 

Tanks in warfar^e, 144 

Tanner, John (the white captive), 102, see 

also 22, 31, 33. 48, 49, 104, 105, 106 
Tanner, Rev. James, see Martyr of 5t- Joe, 

617, 624, 625 
Tasks done by first session legislature 100 

days, 424 
Ta-tan-ka or Buffalo Republic, 36 
Taylor, Joseph H., pioneer, 292 
Tecumseh, 105, 108, 109, no, in 
Teller, Hon. James H., in treaty of 1882, 

327 

Tenskwatawa (the Shawnee prophet), 105, 

106, 108, 109, no, ni 
Territorial finance committee, 408 
Thayer, Prof. E. R., death by drowning, 399 
Thayer, Prof. J. B., admitted to be authors 

of Constitution offered by Hon. E. A. 

Williams in Constitutional Convention, 

398, 399 
Thompson. David. Hudson's Bay Co., En- 
gineer, 18, 19, 31, 64, 97 
Thompson, Senator F. L., sketch of, 443 
Tippecanoe, battle of, log to 116 
Todd. Capt. John B. S., trader, 218, 225, 

263, 264, 278, 279, 382 
Tour of Governor (Drdway, inspecting new 

State, 375 
Towner, Colonel O. W., 544 
Townsite speculation, 230 
Trail of blood, viii, 37 
Traill. Walter J. S., 230, 357 to 365, 498 
Traverse des Sioux mission (1843), 244, 

245 



Treaties, Indian (1778 to 1815), 326 
Treaties (1865 to 1886), 327, see 283 
Tripp and Bennett, assist on codes, 446 
Turtle Mountain reservation, (see also 231) 

327 
Turtle Mountain Indians 300, 536 

United States census of slaves, 1790,. 137 
flag, 46, 64, 69, 79, 80, 81, 119, 203, 260, 634 
Indian rights under, 328, 362 
land office, Vermillion, 1863, 226, 229, 278, 

land office, Pembina, 1870, 354 

land office, Bismarck. 1875. 354 

mail, St. Paul to Ft. Abercrombie, 1858, 

352 
mail, Ft. Abercrombie to Pembina, 1870, 

353 
man, Pembina to Winnipeg (Canadian 

contract), 354 
mail, Grand Forks to Ft. Totten, W. N. 

Roach, contractor, 238 
land surveys, 227 

Senators, biographic sketches, 441, 442 
University, organized 1883, 565 
Upper Missouri land companies, 1858, 225, 

226 
Upper Missouri traders' outfit, 170, 171, 178 

Valley City, 527 

Van Osdel. Capt. Abraham L., 287, 293 

Veils, Frank, 365 

Vilas, W. F., attornev for capital removal. 

Volunteers, Spanish War, 10 companies, 
names of, 577, 591 

Wabasha (Sioux chief) sends peace pipe to 
Chippewas, 80 

Wainright, Rev. Robert, missionary, 626 

Wahpeton. 228, 530 

Wahpeton, early fancy dress ball, 509 

Walhalla, 233, 613, 617 

Wallin, Alfred, Justice, sketch of, 460 

Walker. Bishop, Wm. D., 622 

Wall. Oscar Garret, see Minnesota mas- 
sacre. 192 

Walsh County, 495. 499, 536, 537 

Walsh, George H„ 496, 499 

Wanoton's feast. 146 

Wanoton at Pembina's gates. 107 

Ward, Geo. W.. killed, battle of Big Meadow. 
518 

Ward, Oscar, at Big Meadow battle, 518 

War of 1812, 117 

\\'ebster-Ashburton Treaty, 130 

Wedding customs among half-bloods, 515 

Weiser. Dr. Josiah S., killed by Indians, 290, 
293. 297 

Wells County, 495, 499, 528 

"Western Engineer" first steamboat on Mis- 
souri River. 144 

Wesley College, Wahpeton, later at Grand 
Forks, 564 

Wheat, grading, inspection, political issue, 
604 

Whipple, Bishop Henry B.. 327 

White, Gov. Frank, 429 

White Stone Hills, battle of, and Monu- 
ment, 294 

White, Wm. H., pioneer Methodist, 358, 
363, 544. 555. 564 



INDEX 



(545 



Wiley, Rev. R. C, advocated Sabbath ob- 
servance, 412 

Willey, Capt. O. S., witness to methods in 
slave trade, i860, 134 to 139 

Wills, John, trader, 48, 05, 98 

Williams. Erastus A., 337, 392, 398. 497, 499 • 

Williamson, Rev. John P., 246 to 247 

\\'illiamson, Rev. Thomas S., missionary, 
203, 241 to 247 

WiUiston. 278 

Wilson. Colonel Robert E., 337 

Wilson, President Woodrow, 260 

Windom. Senator, bill for territory of North 
Dakota offered in Congress 1875, 370 

Winship, Geo. B., editor, 356 to 359, 501 

Woman suffrage, subject for legislation, 12, 
406, 441 

Wood, Brevet Major Samuel, expedition to 
Red River Valley. 150 to 154. 259, 275 

Wounded Knee, battle of, 255 

Wovoka, the ghost dance, 252 to 259 

Wyoming massacre, viii, 6, 192 



X. Y. Co. Indian traders, 18, 40, 46, 48, 95 

Yankton, post office established, 223 
site surveyed and occupied, 225 to 228 
temporary capitol erected, 238 
memorial for creation of Dakota Terri- 
tory, 263 
engages in politics, 279 to 280 
first legislative assembly, capital location, 

281 
militia enrolled in the Indian war of 1862, 

286 
proposed capital removal from, 370, see 
also 371, 347, 376, 377 
Yankton County settlers, 225, 228 
Yellowstone Expedition (1819-20), 143 
Young, Geo. M., M. C, sketch of, 445 

Zable, Mrs. Anna (Sioux Massacre), 204, 

206 
Ziebach, Francis M., pioneer editor and 

printer, 282, 287, 288 



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